[clue-tech] Fall and penguins.

[Michael Riversong]

Somewhere in this thread children have been mentioned.  Some experience: from 2001 through 2005 i worked as the computer teacher at a small Christian school.  We had no budget for legal Windows licenses, so Linux became a good alternative.  Several distros were gathered and installed on donated machines, which were usually 2 generations obsolete.

Some notes:

Corel was ok for a while, but couldn't be upgraded at all
Xandros was the easiest to install & use, and had great graphics
Red Hat worked out ok
Knoppix was a big favorite, and included an excellent typing program
Many students, even young as 2nd grade, liked GIMP

It is difficult to infiltrate public schools.  Most public school computer admins are aware of Linux but are not allowed to use it.  That decision is usually made at the Superintendent level, and is thus highly political.

It is possible to get on as a volunteer at private schools, and there you can do a lot of good.

Putting notices on grocery store bulletin boards rarely works.  The few people who look at those are usually so bored, they can't think straight.  Getting on radio talk shows is more effective.

-----Original Message-----
>From: Dave Maddox <softwareanddesign at gmail.com>
>Sent: Aug 24, 2008 4:13 AM
>To: CLUE tech <clue-tech at cluedenver.org>
>Subject: Re: [clue-tech] Fall and penguins.
>
>Here's my two cents, then. Both from my own perspective as one who 
>almost dual-booted his laptop but didn't, and from the perspective of a 
>somewhat tentative Linux adopter also with a Windows laptop.
>
>Both of us fit what I've seen in previous messages - that CLUE can 
>provide the "activation energy" to get us over the hump. In my friend's 
>case, he would gladly install Linux dual-boot but is afraid he'll goof 
>and "mess up his hard drive." I told him that CLUE might have better 
>odds in that department, then, having had plenty of experience. I know, 
>backups still advised...
>
>For myself, my poor hard drive is just too fragmented, when I tried to 
>install I got errors which traced to that being unbearable, at least for 
>Ubuntu. So my first step is backup and restore or something, which I 
>haven't gotten around to. I also thought about booting from an external 
>drive, but my laptop is not really into that sort of thing, it likes CDs 
>and network only. So, maybe there's some other option, or maybe a kick 
>in the butt would suffice. Either way, a little of that energy...
>
>And yes, visibility. So many groups, so little time, somehow it's gotta 
>be visible. Even craigslist or something I guess.
>
>My fallback, still, is to get an old desktop. And I do have my nice 
>little Eeeeeee PC, which I think deserves a *real* distro some day, not 
>just Xandros.
>
>Ok, more like 45c, but still.
>
>Thanks!
>Dave
>
>David L. Willson a écrit :
>>> So can we do anything to attract a broader audience?  What do you think?
>>>     
>>
>> Here is my loose collection of rattling thoughts, for whatever they're worth.  Do pardon
>> the rambling...
>>
>> I don't think we can do anything to attract a significantly ~broader~ audience, because
>> I think Linux is still not what the average Joe or Jane user wants.  However, I think we
>> can make ourselves better known to our target audience.
>>
>> There are two types of people that will use Linux (I think):  Geeks that will pick it,
>> because they want it, and normal users that have it chosen for them.  Why geeks want it
>> could be any of three things: It's free (as in beer).  It's fun (as in powerful, edgy,
>> and free as in speech).  And it's cool (as in "not Windows", "not MacOS", "not what
>> everyone else is running").  For whatever reason, different is, for some people,
>> inherently better.
>>
>> The normal users that had it picked for them won't come to us to learn it, because they
>> don't want to learn it.  They only want to know where the "send" and "print" buttons
>> are.  I don't think there's any point in trying to teach the "car drivers", to call back
>> your automotive analogy, Dave, because we (mostly) don't want to become application
>> experts, and because they don't care, and because applications change, and because they
>> are consumers, and we still need more farmers.
>>
>> The geeks, though, they will come to us to learn it, to get their particular job done,
>> and some of them will come to "love freedom", as LUGradio puts it.  They'll join us to
>> teach other geeks.
>>
>> There is one non-geek group of people that really likes Linux, but I've no idea what to
>> do with them, how to advertise to them, or what do do with them once they're "brought
>> in".  But, ~kids~ really like things (games) that work.  They don't have the "lost
>> interoperability" FUD that grown-ups have, and they are naturally curious.  I don't know
>> any kids that don't want dual-boot systems after a short time with me.
>>
>> The trick then, I think, is to let the curious geeks know we're here, and willing to
>> help.  And, to get Linux in front of more kids, and get them the basics of finding and
>> installing all the free games.
>>
>> Or, maybe Linux is not an end in itself, and we should change our focus to "free
>> software", which might be a meaningful end in itself, and which encompasses Linux but
>> doesn't limit itself thereto.
>>
>> hmm... Lot's of "maybe" and "I think" there.  I'm happy to hear from someone with a
>> clearer picture.
>>
>> -- David
>>
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>>   
>
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Michael Riversong

Cheyenne, Wyoming

Beautiful Music for the whole universe!

http://home.earthlink.net/~mriversong