Tim, Bharath, I think and hope that we're actually already thinking along those lines: I won't go into all the details of the education engagement plan, but getting OpenSolaris media widely available, with some training materials, is top priority. Even though the source can be downloaded for free, network bandwidth isn't the same all around the world, so we felt that this will be quite an enabler.
Tim's point on support is a good one too: OpenSolaris is supported by the community. There are a number of academic programmes which sees Sun donating equipment to institutions, but donating support contracts (beyond warranty) is virgin territory as far as I'm aware. This is all great food for thought -thanks- and if you would like to discuss the details of our planning, please let me know. regards Patrick Tim Foster wrote: >Hey Bharath > >On Mon, 2005-09-19 at 13:21, Bharath Ravi Kumar wrote: > > >>Hi, >> I just wanted to mention a new phenomenon in tech marketing that >>i came across in India: A number of companies have resorted to giving >>away software (with support) to premier institutions in the country >>absolutely free. >> >> > >Yep, that makes perfect sense : of course, OpenSolaris is already >absolutely free - but yes, there should be some contact between the >OpenSolaris community and universities everywhere. Thankfully, there >already is ! > >There are guys who I believe are looking at this stuff at >http://opensolaris.org/os/community/edu/ >I've Cc:d that list on this email (sorry for the cross-post) > >I'd have loved it if my university had OpenSolaris instead of Linux on >the curriculum for a whole load of reasons, but I don't want to risk a >flamewar, so I'll stop there! > >Perhaps the -edu folks have ideas that can help implement your excellent >suggestion ? > >The question of support is one I don't know how to answer (I'm kinda >busy as is, and probably couldn't cope with taking it on myself ;-) At >the very least though, getting OpenSolaris into university curriculums >can be done *now* and perhaps support could be provided through general >interaction with the community ? Not everything has to be donated from a >corporate entity... > >Thanks for the suggestion though - I think it's a good one. > > cheers, > tim > > > >> In addition, they also take time to impart training (through >>developers located in the vicinity of the institutions) in the >>relevant concepts involved. For instance, a University that governs >>colleges around Bangalore mandates that the Linux environment be used >>to carry out minor projects in related to Operating Systems in general >>& Unix in particular. Linux is advocated primarily because it's free. >>Would it not be a good idea to publicize OS and impress upon the Univs >>the importance of OS to the area of Operating Systems? So, Operating >>Systems courses could involve Solaris as a case study & use OS (which >>is free) in their projects. That'd help get word around even better, i >>thought (and you have students with the knowledge of Solaris >>graduating out). Like I mentioned earlier, this is just an observation >>I made. Comments welcome. >>Regards, >>Bharath >>This message posted from opensolaris.org >>_______________________________________________ >>opensolaris-mktg mailing list >> >> >opensolaris-mktg at opensolaris.org > >
