[CS-FSLUG] Macs and Linux use in CD Vol 80 - Issue 11

[George Rodier]

Le samedi 30 octobre 2010 à 12:00 -0500, christiansource-request at ofb.biz
a écrit :
[snip]

Message: 2
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2010 14:50:34 -0500
From: Timothy Butler <tbutler at ofb.biz>

[snip]
> 
> I don't think I've seen anyone using a Linux laptop on campus, 
> incidentally. But that has a lot to do with software. To make it 
> through the Biblical studies classes, you really need either 
> Accordance (Mac) or BibleWorks (Windows). You might be able to 
> survive on Logos, but SWORD won't pass the required muster.
> 
[snip]

Certainly I'm no expert but just Googling "BibleWorks Linux" I see quite
a few entries. Seems to me the seminary's IT department, staff and
professors are letting their students down.

[snip]
> Message: 3
> Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2010 16:05:25 -0400
> From: Josiah Ritchie <josiah at ritchietribe.net>
[snip]
> Subject: Re: [CS-FSLUG] Apple tightens its grip on developers with Mac
> 	App	Store
[snip]
> 
> For better or worse, I see Linux used as a toy far more often than Macs.
> People experiment with it, but don't go any further. This isn't a statement
> of quality of available software, stability or anything like that, just
> reality of my experience with usage.
> 
> JSR/
[snip]

That an increasing number of students and former students are using Macs
may just reflect the number of Macs found in schools over the past
decades. Still, our eleven year old grandson finds Ubuntu with
OpenOffice easier to use than the Mac with MS Office he has at school.

Linux may be used more often as a toy simply because computer hobbyists
can toy with it. There is fun to be had with FLOSS.

Still, the Vancouver (BC) Ubuntu LoCo (Local Community) over the past
two years has grown from its initial four members to over four hundred.
Its Buzz Generator is definitely an Ubuntu evangelist determined to make
the general public as well as private business, education and
governments aware of the presence and value of Ubuntu.

Members of Ubuntu Vancouver do include hobbyists but there are far more
general business and home users as well as a goodly number of Linux
professionals.

The venerable Vancouver Linux Users Group (VanLUG) itself is undergoing
a change of focus from hobbyist/professional to professional and greater
Linux community coordinator and clearing house.

For one I am deeply saddened every time I see not-for-profit groups, and
churches in particular, flushing donations down the tube to Redmond and
Cupertino. Why or why do not seminaries not lead the way out of the
"Windows wilderness"?

Rather than shipping costly Apple hardware to assorted mission fields
would it not be better to develop software that could freely be shared
and run on whatever hardware is available in the local country. As for
North America, could not non-profit dollars be put to better use than
buying shiny Apple devices?

Perhaps one could draw some analogy between the original forbidden fruit
and Apples which are pleasing to the eye and promise to make one wise?

George