tlug: Re: Linux at Universities

[Thomas Joseph Haslam <tjhaslam@example.com>]

At 08:29 PM 09/22/98 +0000, Karl-Max Wagner wrote:

>>Last time I was at Fachhochschule ( one of our universities in
>>Munich ) to visit a friend I saw long rows of PC's with Linux
>>and FreeBSD on them in the exercise rooms, interspersed with
>>some IBM and Sun workstations. No M$ stuff anywhere. And I'd say
>>that this place is pretty typical for all universities
>>hereabouts.

Very glad to hear it.  Very sorry to report that the colleges and
universities that I know about in the States--and just the couple that I
know about in Japan--are rather different.  You'll find the Sun
Workstations, et cetera, but the majority of the machines made available to
the average student end-user are running Windoze (or in some increasingly
isolated cases, Mac OS but still usually MS Word if not MS Office).  (Of
course, you'll always be able to find Unix and variants--and what goes on
in the comp sci and tech departments is rather different from what goes on
in the rest of the University).

>>If students are unable to learn to use Linux, they are also
>>unfit for taking courses at a university. In  other words, they
>>have nothing lost there and should be relegated to work they are
>>fit for, e.g. sweeping streets.

I think they could learn it, fairly easily and readily, if their University
or college would commit to it. Or simply install it on even a minority of
the machines available to the general student population.  For that to
happen (or happen more generally), the need is not to dumb down Linux, I
hope and believe, but to develop some more fairly standard applications
(and yes, preferrably ones that are X-windows based and/or have a GUI).  

I'm less interested in arguing about this than I am in converting a few key
friends (and a couple hundred of machines where I work) over to a Linux
solution.  But for my "audience," most of whom may be indeed considerably
inferior to yours, I don't have the tools I need yet.  I'm not to blame for
the fact that MS serves a default standard in much of the enduser world.
It's frustrating to me because if just a dozen or so people would stop
playing around with Emacs and whatnot for a half year or so, I might have
what I need and you would have less MS in the world.  

We're trying out Debian J here--but whatever it's considerable sys adm
benefits, it--along with the current batch of Linux E-J applications--still
does not quite cover all the bases we need covered.  It's not that far
away.  It might not take more than a handful of damn smart people to make a
considerable difference.  

Outside of that, I really don't think that people like me are the enemy.
(Although what the hell: we might be).  I am hoping that Linux will enable
more people to get more out of computing.  Particularly, in the three areas
that I know something about: SOHO, non-profit orgs, and academia (I have
been at various times employed in all three--currently I do work at a
University in JP).  I am not arguing that Linux and its applications should
become more Windoze-like.  Rather, I am suggesting that Linux already does
much better a number of things that NT attempts and will be attempting to
do; and I am hoping that some Linux apps will do as well (if not in some
ways better) any number of things that certain Windoze-based apps do.

This is a rough crowd!  But I thank Herr Wagner for his remarks, and I
always look forward to and enjoy reading both his techniccal advice and his
polemics against M$ and "lusers"  (even if he places me in that last
category).

Best to all with all,
TJH
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