22,000 Indiana Students Using Linux Desktops 321
Anonymous writes "Indiana's Department of Education has moved 22,000 students onto Linux desktops, and it's looking like that's only going to accelerate with SLED 10, Linspire, and other distributions getting better."
Re:Can someone explain to me the Relevance (Score:5, Informative)
Indiana is quietly attempting to become a leader in the Tech Industry in small steps taken by the government (instead of the populace).
Our telecommunications bill was a step in the right direction.
Bayh actively supports Net Neutrality (with Dick Lugar seeming to favor it, as well).
State-sponsored research into improving the conditions for tech companies here in Indiana (and taking necessary steps to accomplish this).
Governer Daniels voicing his desire for Indiana to move from manufacturing to tech; and expressing his wish to stop the 'brain drain'
This recent OSS adoption
Not all of it will pan out, of course. But, I applaud my state knowing that it is trying to move toward these goals. Amazing, considering how 'red' we are.
Re:Can someone explain to me the Relevance (Score:2, Informative)
I don't know about the states but I have a feeling Linux is still just as a) unknown b) scaring c) looked at as a server OS to the general population as here in Sweden.
Indiana Doing Something Progressive? (Score:2, Informative)
Anyway I'm glad to see this so maybe my child will get to use a real computer with a real OS other than at gome.
Re:One or two Linux "flavors" are not enough? (Score:2, Informative)
It's true that I did not explain myself 100% clearly:
The "let them choose" meant that kids might develop prefences toward using a certain distro if more than one present in the same classroom?
And if ever such a thing would become apparent, it is logical to equip more PCs with the given distro.
Maybe it would be great, if it were true (Score:5, Informative)
And in a flash 22000 Indiana students can't use websites using Flash.
Of course they can see Flash animations. Personally, I find more than 95% of Flash animations on websites to be a waste of time and bandwidth, and currently disable Flash, but there are several Flash plugins for Linux, including one from Adobe.
Props to Lance Woods (Score:2, Informative)
There's more than corn in Indiana...... (Score:2, Informative)
Indiana has been making steady progress in transforming itself into a center of technology innovation. Some of the largest companies in the world are based in Indiana and the military technology sector in Indianapolis and Fort Wayne is unbelieveable. Pharma, Def-Tech, Orthopedics, etc. Indiana is a leader in all these fields.
Yes, we do grow corn here and a lot of it!
BTW, we've been trying to give the Gary region near Chicago to Illinois for years but, they won't take it. So it's currently available for anyone wanting to take over the payments....
Re:Can someone explain to me the Relevance (Score:4, Informative)
A HUGE amount. Microsoft's "educational" discounts are laugable. I don't know the exact numbers for Indiana, but I have experience in setting up a large linux network for a school and the money we saved on software allowed us to purchase much better hardware. All of our workstations are now equiped with flat panel monitors.
I remember MS claiming the TCO total cost of ownership is lower for Windows than for linux because of training...
MS's claims are just marketing garbage.
The school that I volunteer for has 2 ltsp servers and 60 thin clients. Since the thin clients have no hard drives, I never have to fix them. If there is a need for a new software package to be installed or account maintenance, I just remote into the server.
Much easier solution for me personally than servicing 60 windows XP computers, regardless of how locked down they are.
As far as training goes.. well, the first year I just made the system look like windows : screenshot [cox.net]
As the year went on, I noticed that neither students(k-8) nor teachers had any problems using the web browser or open office in linux. I can't imagine spending much money on training, becuase the system was more than intuitive enough.
As far as training for any new network administrators goes, sure. However in this day and age it would be silly for a network administrator to not put some effort into learning linux.
Re:Preinstalled Linux (Score:3, Informative)
Your selection of FreeDOS or RedHat:
AVAILABLE HERE [dell.com]