[CS-FSLUG] Transitions (was: Wacky thought - Linux consulting)

[N.Thompson]

Don't jump to conclusions before letting me have a chance to defend myself.

First off I was mistaken, the school hasn't purchased the new computers yet, 
the new computer lab turned out just to be a spare running more of the same 
old IBM's as the computer lab I have my computer science class in, the only 
difference was the computer cases.

I do not have an antagonistic relationship with the sysadmins and computer 
science teacher at school, while I haven't meat the systadmin at school yet 
that I know of I spend lots of time talking to my computer science teacher 
and we are  on very good terms (made better by my 90% in computer science 
last term). Anyway I heard from him that the school was going to be buying 
new computers (eventually) so I asked him a little about that. The school has 
a bidding system for the new sysadmin, whoever presents them with the most 
favourable price to quality ratio gets the job and gets to call the shots.

I wanted to make sure my computer teacher knew that Open Source software was 
as good as just about anything for Windows (give or take a few missing or new 
apps) so I burned him off a copy of an OpenOffice.org CD I made with my own 
autorun program for windows and Linux and I think I also burned him off a 
copy of the OpenCD so he could try it out. I also posted some screenshots of 
Mandrake 10.0, Qt-Designer, KDE and KDevelop on the schools message boards so 
he and the other students could see how nice some stuff in Linux is. I'm 
hoping that if he has some voice in the decision making process for choosing 
the new sysadmin this will allow him to make a more educated decision.

I did not complain about the schools windows systems at all, however I did 
tell my computer science teacher about Linux and when the teacher would pipe 
up and say "I wish windows could ..." usually I would wind up telling him 
Linux could, finally he learned not to say that any more :-) .

Anyway the school is upgrading to new computer systems anyway and they are 
going to be upgrading to a more current OS which may and up being Windows XP 
professional and server 2003 for the file server, but they could easily make 
the switch to Linux with just as much ease and save money in the process if 
they chose to go with something like SUSE or Mandrake Linux. Plus they 
wouldn't have to run old versions of Visual Basic 6 and Microsoft's Java 
implementation which are no good for teaching any more because the students 
can only use it at school.

BTW. Just to clarify something, Microsof's java is not compatible with Sun's 
java and was designed this way specifically to try and make it a Windows only 
programming language, so Microsoft's implementation is not platform 
independent.

On April 7, 2004 10:21 am, Eduardo Sanchez wrote:
> On Wednesday 07 April 2004 09:51, Stephen J. McCracken wrote:
> [big snip]
>
> > It sounds from these last two paragraphs that you are already in an
> > antagonistic relationship with these people, and that NEVER... I
> > repeat:
> > NEVER helps.  Rather than sitting back and berating the guy (BTW, does
> > that show the love of Christ?) why don't you volunteer to help him out
> > with his work.  In the process you can learn more about WinNT and his
> > concerns and maybe have a chance to widen his horizons in teaching him
> > some about Linux and Open Source.  In the process you might gain a
> > friend rather than someone who starts to hate to see you if you are
> > always berating what he does.
> >
> > sjm
>
> On a sidenote, I don't think that one could conclude from Nathan's
> writings that he's on an antagonistic relationship with such people. I
> would take Nathan's email at its face value: an expresion of his
> genuine feelings. I think he's entitled to them and I also think it's
> just fair to share them with the List. We are his brothers and his
> friends and frequently we have held him in prayer. And I know how
> frustrating is being forced to deal with some proprietary software when
> perfectly good free alternatives do exist.
>
> OTOH, Steven's advice is very good advice. I would not only endorse it
> myself to Nathan; I would also take heed of it because I know I need
> it.
>
> May God bless you all,
>
> Eduardo