re Fairfax County, VA -- beginning, a computer and broadband Internet for every student

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

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  
> conscripted
> into 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  
> other
> 100-200 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 local
> LUG 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  
> grant
> permission 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:  
> execution
> off 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