RfD: FSFe-education [FSFE projects]

[Olivier Berger]

Gerhard Poul a écrit :
> 
> An easy-install copy of linux is worth _nothing_ if they have to
> read thousands of pages to even maintain it.
> 
> I know. - I also often say that free software is _easy_ to use.  But the
> reality is something completely different.
> 
> I know of a school with a full-time systems administrator and he needs
> the help of some enthusiastic students to keep up with the work.
> Now, many schools don't have this luxury of a dedicated sysadmin.
> 
> If it is _harder_ and _costs_ more money to maintain GNU/Linux it will
> not be used and the copies you sent them are _wasted_.
> 
> Sun introduced a model of an Education Service Provider.  I think this
> might help in this situation.
> 
> What about an FSFE ESP that helps schools to outsource and maintain their
> infrastructure? - The maintainance would be (hopefully) lower and teachers
> would be able to focus on their _work_ instead of playing with some
> administration tools.

I think you should have a look at what the guys behind the pingoo
distribution do : http://www.pingoo.org/English/welcome.html

Their servers are used in France in several schools with tens of
thousands of students/teachers connected... and remote adminsitration of
the servers.

The web site of Pingoo and of the "Centre de Ressources Informatiques de
Haute-Savoie" (http://www.cri74.org/) which is the public local
adminsitration of the eastern district of france leading the project
should be most enjoyable if you need more info about that.

I've heard of similar experience in other districts, but have no pointer
:(

This solves the problem of  system adminsitration, but not of the
educational applications, that teachers and students really need.

-- 
Olivier BERGER - Secrétaire de l'association APRIL 
APRIL (http://www.april.org) - Vive python (http://www.python.org)
Pétition contre les brevets logiciels : http://petition.eurolinux.org