This Tuesday, I attended a meeting of the school tech coordinators in Exeter which had as the primary topic Linux and open source software.
It was amazing. In Exeter they have a professional development center with 30 computers running Linux Terminal Server and they are opening a Charter School which will be using Linux exclusively. Other schools are moving forward with major Linux and Open source initiatives and the state DOE seems to be interested as well. Several participants ran Linux on a variety of laptops including Apples and many are uniformly installing and using Open Office in place of MS Office for office machines. It appeared the E-Smith server package is becoming the tool of choice to use in installing and setting up servers in schools. The consensus of may participants was to get people using Open Source cross platform applications and then they can more easily be moved over to Linux which is one reason why promoting Open source on windows is beneficial to the adoption of Linux I think it is fair to say thinks are moving forward at a very rapid rate and it would be nice if GNHLUG could find a way to facilitate and assist this activity. From my perspective, the lack of organization and coordinated activities, as much as that might work internally and among ourselves, is a major limiting factor when dealing other organizations. I feel GNHLUG is for this reason, as perhaps it should be, more a small and loose collection of kindred spirit Linux users as opposed to an organization which also engages in activities for its promotion and education about its use. On a side note, shortly around a dozen libraries and other computer access centers in the norther part of the state will soon have large collections of Opens Source software for loan and use. Ed Lawson _______________________________________________ gnhlug-org mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-org
