On Fri, 2006-03-10 at 14:19 +, john levin wrote:
Adrian Mitchell wrote:
Hi
I'm looking for suggestions about spreading the use of Ubuntu.
I'm very impressed with Ubuntu and I would like to do my best to
encourage the UK Voluntary Sector to make more use of FOSS - and Ubuntu
in particular.
Trouble is, other than fairly casual conversations, I'm not sure of the
best way of doing this.
Has anybody got any ideas?
It seems to me that the voluntary sector and FOSS are a perfect match.
In fact I'd go as far as saying that the voluntary sector could be a
significant driving force in the wider acceptance of FOSS.
Unfortunately even here Windows is ubiquitous - and even where
organisations might be prepared to switch to Linux there are problems
with knowledge/skills (particularly with regards to multi-platform
networks and network admin/security issues) - but also problems with the
fact that a lot of 3rd party/custom/proprietry software being used
within these organisations only runs on Windows.
Presumably the only way to put pressure on these software developers is
for more people to use Linux - but we have a catch 22 since they (will
say they) can't use Linux with their existing software.
The charity that I work for has this problem - both our central
database, and our websites currently only run on MS SQL and use .Net.
Is there a simple way of getting around this?
Adrian Mitchell
My feeling is that there are quite a lot of small initiatives for
bringing FLOSS into the voluntary sector (and public sector), spread all
round the country. An example of a complete (and cheap) linux (Red Hat
and LTSP in this case) solution:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39166840,00.htm
For national co-ordination, there's the social source events:
http://www.socialsource.org.uk/
(Don't know what the current status is with that; the site doesn't seem
to have been updated since November last year.)
As far as Ubuntu specifically, I don't know of any deployments in the
Vol/NGO sector in the UK.
Interesting round-up
http://www.lasa.org.uk/cgi-bin/publisher/display.cgi?1427-10103-12611+computanews
My hunch is that the way to spread FLOSS is start with Firefox, so
people don't have to jump straight into a new OS, but can see the
benefits of free software quickly and in practice. Start with the
(Canonical-supported) Open Cd:
http://www.theopencd.org/
which comes with a cut-down version of Ubuntu Live.
If there are enough people on this list involved in the voluntary
sector, it could be worth starting an Ubuntu-for-Orgs.uk initiative, to
promote and support orgs wanting to use FLOSS.
HTH
John
Hi I'm from a school in Lincolnshire and we have been using linux and
FLOSS for some time now (My boss says 3years +). We give the open cd
away in our library to anyone who wants it, and the uptake has been
great, we found that the cd's went quite quickly at first but now people
copy the cd's and bring them back in for us to share again.
We do all ICT Teaching on linux systems and have firefox and openoffice
on most of the other windows machines in school.
we use debian sarge with ltsp, firefox, nvu, xmlmind, openoffice, and
zope for a-level projects.
although we are experimenting with edubuntu-dapper and trying to include
Local Disk Access. This would be the icing on the cake.
If you or anyone has any furthur questions please feel free to ask them
or email
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
or myself on
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
--
Kind regards
Alistair Crust
Systems Administrator
Skegness Grammar School
Vernon Road
Skegness
PE25 2QS
TEL: 01754 61 (ext'852)
FAX: 01754 896875
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