Linux is free, and is good for basic training for poorer school districts until they can afford ‘better’ programs. But there’s no such thing as a free lunch, one has to make do with what it offers, which isn’t much.

Our school switched to Linux and I can tell you that with very few exceptions, its Ubuntu is inadequate in many areas. For one, the interface is counter intuitive. Tux Paint for example can only be configured to save in a folder called “saved”, text is un-editable, and the images are of poor choice and quality (a murdered rag doll, anyone?). Don’t get me started with GCompris and its mind boggling “word processing” for kids. I would rather go online to use a web-based word processing site like Houghton-Mifflin’s.

Second, support is horrid. Does everyone know which version of Debian or Red hat to click when downloading anything from their website? Why exactly is it called Synaptic packages and not “Install” or something more understandable? I tried to change my mouse to a larger and more kid friendly icon and discovered I needed to know some programming to do that.

Third is content. I like that I can edit Kanagram, Ktouch and a few other programs to include my list of vocabulary for example. But that’s about all the control I have over the content. OO.org Writer has tons of cool icons and clipart, but must the students really see clip art of a half-naked mermaid, different panty hoses, a Playboy silhouette, and a smoking “bad guy” cartoon just to name a few examples?

I wish the “I-Hate-Microsoft/Steve-Jobs” bunch would stop ‘their’ blather about how Linux is our technology savior. It’s not, it’s a stop gap, band-aid measure until hardware and software prices plummet. Linux has cool games, but it’s anti-user friendly where it really counts.

Jeniffer.

Thanks for letting me know about that particular post!

Thanks for the information,just found this post my technorati news feed section! I was searching for this since past 3 months and i am glad to see it here. Thanking you much

Martin