[Gllug] Linux in education

[Chris Bell]

Hello,
   I have visited the BETT education show almost every year, first at the
Barbican and then Olympia. One of my colleagues at the BBC, Jim Daniels,
also ran a family business called Pineapple Software dealing in Acorn
computers and had a stand. Over the years the "Acorn Village" dwindled and
Microsoft muscled in to schools. The official government-backed
organisations started to specify Microsoft as a requirement.
   When I visited the exhibition last January there was a definite feeling
that change was in the wind. The government backed stands were very careful
to not specify or promote any operating system, suggesting that any means
could be used to achieve the intended result. However I was usually greeted
by blank looks when I asked about Unix, Linux, or Free Open Source Software.
I offered some Knoppix DVDs, but most people refused to accept them.
   Would there be any interest if next January Debian, Ubuntu, Redhat, Suse,
and others could organise a "FOSS Village" of some description? I do not
know what charges would be levied for what facilities, but I feel that there
is a need.

BETT 
12 - 15th January 2011
Olympia, London
www.bettshow.com

Education Show 
17 - 19th March 2011
NEC, Birmingham
www.education-show.com

-- 
Chris Bell www.chrisbell.org.uk (was www.overview.demon.co.uk)
Microsoft sells you Windows ... Linux gives you the whole house.

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