On Fri, 2005-01-21 at 04:21 -0800, BISHOP WOODS EL SCHOOL wrote:
> Dear cyber friends: Our new Tech dept head is talking about putting Linux
>machines in our schools and I know nothing about this operating system but based
>on his comments I am worried about what it will do to our ability to use the
>machines in a productive manner - having students work on individual projects to
>produce powerpoint presentations etc. If you know anything about how this system
>works or if you have it in your schools or on your home machines I would
>appreciate your opinion. Thank you
Linux can work quite well, depending on what you want.
I've had Linux on my desktop since last June and I'm at least as
productive as I ever was.
The software used is different than the software on a Windows-based
computer, in much the same way that the software on a Macintosh is
different than the software on a Windows-based computer.
Instead of running Microsoft Office on my Linux desktop, I use
OpenOffice.org... a free software program which has components which
work like Microsoft Office. OpenOffice.org can read and write Microsoft
Office files... it's not 100% perfect, but it works about as well as
reading Office 97 files in Office Pro 2003. :)
For desktop office work, writing letters and creating spreadsheets,
Openoffice.org works fine.
If you've got the children using the Internet via a web browser, there
are some web sites which don't like anything other than Internet
Explorer... the trade off is that many of the viruses out there are
written explicitly for Windows-based computers so you spend less time
fighting viruses with Linux-based computers.
You can do a google search for "Linux in education" and get a list of
several sites which talk about the pros and cons of using Linux...
including some very good software specifically written for elementary
school children.
...brig
--
Brig C. McCoy
Head, Systems Office
Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology
5109 Cherry Street
Kansas City, Missouri 64110-2498
816-926-8749 Direct
816-885-2700 Cell
816-926-8790 FAX
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