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Teacher accuses student using linux of copyright infringement!
- Thread starter LeoFio
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Reading her letter I couldn't get Lily Tomlin's "Ernestine the telephone operator" voice out of my head
it just *fits*.
Silly woman.
Silly woman.
There's nothing wrong in believing that software shouldn't be free, there's nothing wrong with not knowing that linux is an open source project, hell there's nothing wrong with not knowing what open source is.
But, there is a problem with being so unbelievably arrogant and having such a high belief in your sense of truth that you can't be bothered to even try and get at the truth. If this teacher was totally computer illiterate but had decided even to dedicate a few minutes to learning about what she confiscated this problem wouldn't exist. But no, she decides to write an offensively if somewhat politely worded libelous letter. And her job is to teach children to think, oh dear.
But, there is a problem with being so unbelievably arrogant and having such a high belief in your sense of truth that you can't be bothered to even try and get at the truth. If this teacher was totally computer illiterate but had decided even to dedicate a few minutes to learning about what she confiscated this problem wouldn't exist. But no, she decides to write an offensively if somewhat politely worded libelous letter. And her job is to teach children to think, oh dear.
This whole thing happened in a middle school, and the teacher's right, linux is a poor operating system for the average user. Support is a joke, installing is anything but straightforward, drivers are near impossible to find for common printers, and its not developer friendly. How much software can you buy for linux? Some will argue that the best things in life are free, but linux is far from the best.
Actually, far too often her job is to prepare her students to take state mandated tests, and to avoid litigation. The education system is a joke lately.
If her letter had resulted in one less linux distribution being passed around, she'd have done linux a favor. One of its biggest drawbacks is inconsistency between flavors. It not all different colored bits on top of the same backbone.
Actually, far too often her job is to prepare her students to take state mandated tests, and to avoid litigation. The education system is a joke lately.
If her letter had resulted in one less linux distribution being passed around, she'd have done linux a favor. One of its biggest drawbacks is inconsistency between flavors. It not all different colored bits on top of the same backbone.
Linux is amazing for servers, to me it's the standard (note I'm referring to "LAMP" and similar solutions) and everything else is lagging behind, well, there are other very good versions of UNIX as well.
But for the desktop, I tried the latest version of Ubuntu and even as a programmer who's confident in using the terminal I just don't like it. Too much work to get practically anything done, it's "user friendly" to the linux geeks, it's absolutely not user friendly to most people. Too much hacking and tweaking to get even the most simple stuff installed and configured.
Linux geeks aren't always very user friendly themselves. Apache runs a server really well. That's linux's forte. Are there better server systems? I'd say yes, but those options are often more costly and not actually necessary. If people had to pay a $100-200 licensing fee per unit for linux like most other operating systems, I can't imagine many people would choose it.
Apache runs a server really well. That's linux's forte. Are there better server systems? I'd say yes, but those options are often more costly and not actually necessary. If people had to pay a $100-200 licensing fee per unit for linux like most other operating systems, I can't imagine many people would choose it.
I tried Linux in college as well. Back then it WAS a nightmare to set up, but now it's so easy a teacher can do it. It's come a long way, baby. Today's Linux distro (I like Ubuntu) have installers that makes it a breeze to set up. Digging into the guts still requires one to be steep in Unix lore though.
It's come a long way, baby. Today's Linux distro (I like Ubuntu) have installers that makes it a breeze to set up. Digging into the guts still requires one to be steep in Unix lore though.
Support, eh? Let's go into that.
Scanners.
Printers.
Video drivers:
nVidia, ATI. All other cards are Native, or supported through X.org.
Multiple monitors? Once again, supported through X.org.
USB is native. Other peripherals are native. the only thing that isn't supported are Windows-based Software modems. iPhones/iPods are even supported under Linux.
Software: MS Office? bah. Open Office.
Photoshop? heh. The GIMP.
Audio/Video? Amarok, XMMS, VLC Media Player, Xine, among MANY others.
Communications? Pidgin, various other ICQ/AIM clients, Skype.
Browsers? Konquerer. Firefox. Opera. Links. Lynx. Among others.
Mail? Mutt. Elm. Pine. Seamonkey. Thunderbird. Among many others.
Installation? All graphical (save Slackware), and actually can be done remotely and hands-free.
There's a lot of things that Linux supports and does that Windows and OS X does NOT do, so you may want to do a bit more research into what it can and can't do before saying that it is a joke. You'll be surprised.
Also, just because software can be bought, does not mean that it is better.
Agreed.
BL.
I was referring to professional tech support. Who do you call when you have linux, a forum? Some of the software you pushed up there is what I'd call unacceptable for the task, namely gimp and open office. But I don't really want to get into it, I want to go get my macbook pro and a new hdmi cable.
Actually in terms of support linux is not bad. The license cost actually pales in comparison to the cost of running a server, maybe it's a deal maker for the cheap servers, but when you're running a real business you're likely to spend more on the server in one month then the whole cost of a windows server license (couple hundred $). Most support comes from hiring an individual or a management company to do it, and trust me, this is necessary for windows servers too. There are just as many eligible candidates whose forte is Linux as there are Windows administrators, that definitely isn't a problem. Phone support, you can probably buy from a third party but some enterprise level distributions do offer it.
As for the whole charade, that's one of the problems with linux, just because you can "replace" some windows software with other software that works entirely different doesn't give users a reason to switch. I don't think many professional designers will use GIMP over photoshop for one.
Having seen nearly identical behavior myself (in person) - I disagree with that notion. Never underestimate the stupidity of humans. Ever. Edit: ESPECIALLY with the "educated" ones.