Re: [Fsfe-uk] RE: Call for education help

[Richard Smedley]

> Chris Puttick wrote:
> 
> I was more hoping for someone to write some articles - part of the
> education Linux branding process.

I'm happy to write articles, I've been writing
on this subject for a couple of years now. However
I do find myself a little out of date on becta,
uk gov, all the education with a capital 'E' side
of things - which is why it's good to have someone 
here who is involved with this on a day-to-day basis :)



> However, BECTa have changed their tune, and have postive open source
> commentary: see http://www.becta.org.uk/technology/infosheets/index.html
> under open source, and try a search for Linux. The govt have also made

interesting

[snip]
> I would argue strongly against making a schools distro. The shiny
> packaging of the big distros, and the nominal price tag associated with
> them is *much* more persuasive than a CD in jewel case that costs less.
> The big distros also carry the branding with them. In SuSE's case, the
> recent partnership with IBM will make it even easier to place them into
> schools.


What you say may have some bearing on "selling" GNU/Linux to 
_individual_ schools, or school districts, however the
original aim behind the idea was to reduce much of the 
configuration and package selection work duplicated at each
school.

Following a successful trial, a schools distribution would
enable a rapid roll-out after HM government mandates the
use of Free Software in all publically-funded schools.
Hmm, I must stop sniffing these highlighter pens ;^)

Please note that SuSE GNU/Linux is unfortunately not
Free Software as the licensing conditions of Yast and
Yast2 do not allow redistribution :-(

- Richard

-- 

Richard Smedley
Production Editor, Linux Format

Telephone +44 (0) 1225 442244 ext 5038