[Fwd: [Fwd: [Inschool] [Fwd: [Fwd: [KLUG Members] New LINUX products]]]]

[Adam Williams]

>I've had a response from my school board contact. This is what he had to
>say about the last two or three emails that I have sent him.
>I think my primary emphasis with this is to make sure that our people
>can do their jobs... 

Oh, I like this guy already.

>Obviously, some of the titles I listed will not be
>supported by Linux (Bill Gates will do his very best to make sure of
>that). As a result, we need to look at the alternatives - are there any
>available, can they do the same thing as what we use now, how much
>training/conversion work will be required to actually get up to speed
>with the new product? This also means that we have to have a good
>understanding of what product functionality we currently use (in order
>to make a valid comparison).

Yep.

>The other aspect of this (which is more important to me) is software
>used by students. I personally know that some of the programs used
>at North were specifically requested by the teachers after they had
>done research on various packages. I also know that some of the
>classes at the High School use MS tools because that is what seems
>to be prevalent out in the workforce. 

While I could take serious issue with this "prevalence" argument....
OK.  

Speaking or prevalence do they teach COBOL?  How about SQL, and that
includes OUTER joins?  Version control systems?  Whats that.... No! 
Oh!  I thought you meant "prevalent" to mean tools that people who use
computers to manipulate data use every day.... ;)

Please God.... send me ***ONE*** intern who knows what the *(&&*@^
*&^@&*^*$ &*@^&@(# a relational database is!!!!!!  

Oh, they can make a form in Access!!! How quaint....  Now take those 1.4
million records over there and.......

Your actually training these students to do work processing for the
local baker.  You (the public schools) are completely failing to train
people to exist in a mid-size to large corporate environment.

>It may be a requirement that
>some of these programs have to work (not sure). 

Ok,  but we need to know which ones.

>I am also thinking
>that there may need to be another study run by the teachers that
>includes Linux packages, since I'm pretty sure they only looked at
>Windows-based programs before. 

Amazing!  This is an administrator?  Lets give this guy a raise.

>BTW - Mark is on vacation
>this week, so I will try to contact him on Monday or Tuesday.

Don't know who Mark is. :(