[sf-lug] Another GNU-Linux school in San Francisco

[Michael Shiloh]

This is awesome news.

I was just contacted indirectly by my daughter's high school asking 
whether I could help with their old machines. They did not explicitly 
ask for Linux, but these stories will help support the only obvious (to 
me) suggestion I'd like to make to them.

The school is Raoul Wallenberg, near the corner of Geary and Masonic, 
just up the hill from Creative Arts. Do you have the bandwidth and 
energy to help with yet another school?

Michael

Christian Einfeldt wrote:
> I am very happy to let you all know that another school's lab has been 
> converted from slow, virus-bitten Microsoft Windows to GNU-Linux.  This 
> school is the ISA school at 18th and De Haro.  There are now 22 machines 
> running in the library running Karmic Ubuntu.  Most of these machines 
> were previously too slow to be used effectively by the students, and so 
> they just sat here unused.
> 
> Now there will be about 4 classes in the library daily using Free 
> Software to do web browsing, email, and essay composition. 
> 
> In addition, one of the teachers here has been using 3 Linux machines in 
> his classroom since January, and likes it.  Soon, we will install Linux 
> on another teacher's mission-critical teacher machine, meaning that 
> teacher will use it for his teacher assignments and work. 
> 
> This conversion was made possible by James Howard's cool mass 
> installer.  We were able to install these machines in just about 2 hours 
> or so.  The machines are going to be stand-alone clients with access to 
> the Internet, at least for the short term, until we get a server in here 
> to establish top-down control of the software.  The machines all have 
> parental control filters that function as part of the SFUSD protection 
> for the students.
> 
> It is really rewarding to see machines which had been abandoned as junk 
> turned into functioning machines to allow students to get online and do 
> what they need to do.
> 
> This particular school project is also a huge step forward for the 
> Partimus Linux school conversion project, because it has been followed 
> closely by the IT staff for the entire SFUSD.  If this process works 
> well and is reviewed well by the SFUSD IT guys, there is a chance that 
> we could see a real domino effect, with SFUSD adopting Linux as a viable 
> alternative for Microsoft Windows.
> 
> The timing of this migration is fortuitous.  San Francisco's Mayor, 
> Gavin Newsom, has come out strongly for FOSS recently:
> 
> http://mashable.com/2009/10/21/san-francisco-government/
> 
> "Second, I am challenging City departments to use open source software 
> when they look to update or purchase new software. In recognition of how 
> far open source has come today, I am also pleased to announce the launch 
> of my new city web site in open source <http://www.sfmayor.org/> powered 
> by WordPress. Open source software has been able to deliver shorter 
> implementation times and lower costs. We have seen this with DataSF.org 
> <http://www.datasf.org/>, RecoverySF.org <http://recoverysf.org/> and 
> our 311 integration with Twitter <http://twitter.com/sf311>."
> 
> We are seeing the grassroots movement in schools possible converging 
> with Mayor Newsom's visionary move to FOSS.  Perhaps the day is not far 
> off when Microsoft will face real competition for the hearts, minds, and 
> wallets of budgeting departments throughout San Francisco city government. 
> 
> So many thanks to James Howard and Grant Bowman, the two FOSS gurus who 
> have been heading up the schools effort.
> 
> We still do need decent printers with ethernet ports, so if anyone has 
> some that they could share with us, we would be grateful.
> 
> -- 
> Christian Einfeldt,
> Producer, The Digital Tipping Point
> 
> 
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> 
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-- 
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