[Liverpool] Linux Installation

[Simon Johnson]

>
>
> With your support regarding this 'School Linux Project', do you think this
> is achievable within the time scale of the school opening on 2nd Sept?
>

No. These things *always* take longer than you think. The worst advert for
Linux is a messed up half-deployment

Plan out precisely what you need to do and how long realistically each one
of those things will take. Then add 30% to cover unforeseen problems.

Remember, you're doing this to improve their user experience. This project
is *about* your users - it's not about making a political statement about
Microsoft. Make sure you approach the project with your users' satisfaction
number one priority at all times.

Finally, make sure you throughly scan the computers in question (especially
the laptops) for files stored locally. If you obliterate a teacher's family
photos or their lesson plans they're not going to be happy. It doesn't
matter that the files in question might not be work related - they still
won't be happy and that's *bad* for you and the project.

Be prepared for people to resist change. Make sure your argument focus on
the benefits to your *users* not to the school's bank balance. Don't at any
time mention software freedom. Users don't want or care about. Say that
Linux is more secure against viruses, faster than Windows 7 on the same
hardware, Open Office's UI is more consistent with their old UI than Office
2007 etc.

Focus on the *user.*

Good luck, it sounds like an exciting project.

Cheers,

Simon
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