Interesting People mailing list archives
re Fairfax County, VA -- beginning, a computer and broadband Internet for every student
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:48:43 -0500
Begin forwarded message:
From: Rich Kulawiec <rsk () gsp org> Date: March 12, 2010 12:43:12 PM EST To: Gene Gaines <gene.gaines () gainesgroup com> Cc: Joly MacFie <joly () punkcast com>, Dave Farber <dave () farber net>Subject: Re: [IP] Fairfax County, VA -- beginning, a computer and broadband Internet for every student
On Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 09:37:06AM -0500, Gene Gaines wrote:The first pilot set of computers is scheduled to be given out in early May, refurbished Pentiums or better with XP, and free cable Internet in their homes.I'll weigh in on this one point.This -- Windows XP -- is, I think, a huge mistake. It will only be a short time before most of those systems are fully compromised and conscriptedinto one of the botnets du jour. I'm sure that various measures will be taken to forestall this, like anti-virus software and attempts at user education and so on, but they will fail, just like they've failed [just about] everywhere else.I'm sure one reaction to this is "But...". Right. That's what the other100-200 million people whose Windows systems are now busy sending spam and conducting DoS attacks and so on probably said too. So I suggest bypassing this nightmare and the concomittant costs and headaches by installing Linux. In fact, I suggest asking the localLUG to create a version of the Knoppix distribution (see www.knoppix.net )for you that runs live-CD style and includes the applications that the students are most likely to need, perhaps: web browser: Firefox mail client: Thunderbird office suite: OpenOffice (or: word processor: AbiWord) media player: Miro chat client: Pidgin etc. -- there are thousands of choices They could also, perhaps, bundle in selected content for the teaching programs that these systems will support. For example: full book texts from Project Gutenberg, or USGS topographic maps from LibreMap, or anything else that can be distributed without license hassles.I would bet that some publishers -- O'Reilly comes to mind -- would grantpermission for some of their books to be included, if asked. And some authors -- Cory Doctorow comes to mind -- might well do the same. Why live-cd style? Because then you can upgrade every computer in the program by burning a stack of CDs and sending them home with the kids.Also, kids doing schoolwork don't have high performance needs: executionoff CD is probably fine. (Especially with an operating system that makes efficient use of system resources.) And it ducks one set of security issues. The Knoppix UI is just as easy to learn as Windows or MacOS or any other GUI operating environment. And while the Linux OS is certainly not impervious, its security track record is greatly superior to that of Windows. It's also free. As are all the thousands of applications that I referred to. And for pedagogical purposes, giving students the chance to learn on Linux far better prepares them for the future. ---Rsk
------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
Current thread:
- re Fairfax County, VA -- beginning, a computer and broadband Internet for every student Dave Farber (Mar 12)