Re: [OS:N:] Seniors and open source

On Saturday, Apr 30, 2005, at 08:27 US/Central, Mark Jensen wrote:
> Since I saw a lot of LiveCD talk here, let me point out that it may be 
> really neat to show off Linux in this way, but it really isn't 
> practical for them to *use* a LiveCD for email, as they would have to 
> re-setup their account settings, plus they would lose all their data 
> (previous emails, address book, etc).   Unless they only used webmail 
> or you also taught them how to use a USB key as a permanent home 
> storage device.

Gmail or IMAP, anyone? :)  BTW, having to re-configuring account 
settings is true in a classroom without assigned seating or in a 
classroom where drives routinely get re-imaged.

> I think that the target audience is comfortable with Windows, and it 
> would be an advantage to show them Open Source apps that run on that 
> platform, rather than try to convert them to a new OS.

Good point: use what they are comfortable with.  However, this does 
depend on how much control you have over the teaching environment.  If 
you have admin rights and are allowed to make changes, definitely 
install FLOSS on Windows along side all the pre-existing software.  
That will demonstrate that FLOSS knows how to play well with others.

On the other hand, if you do not have admin rights, a LiveCD is the 
next best option.  For example, I'm currently helping out in an 
environment where I do not have admin access on the Windows machines.  
That creates a challenge for introducing FireFox, ThunderBird, 
OpenOffice.org, and other FLOSS.  In that kind of environment, Knoppix 
+ USB or Knoppix + image on HDD works great[*].  The latest Knoppix 3.8 
automatically scans for knoppix.img and other config files on boot up, 
so you don't even have to type in "knoppix myconfig=scan home=scan"

[*] On a recent trip abroad, I used the Knoppix + HDD method on a few 
machines in cybercafes that were running Windows XP but didn't have USB 
slots.  I would boot Knoppix, run Qtparted to shrink the NTFS volume by 
about one GB, and create two new partitions: one swap and one Linux 
data partition.  I would then save my settings to the data partition.  
Booting without the Knoppix CD brought up Windows XP as normal.  
Booting with the Knoppix CD started my custom configuration.

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org/downloads
Help others get OpenSource software.  Distribute FLOSS
for Windows, Linux, *BSD, and MacOS X with BitTorrent

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