Linux: Ubuntu In My Lab

Then there is the issue of attaining desirable software in the first place. Mentioned above, brand-name recognition of software is also a problem, not just recognition of the OS. Converting people to OpenOffice.org (which is installed on Windows partitions as well) is a struggle, but as more and more people use it and realize the differences are minimal, they pull along the more entrenched of their colleagues. Then there is the problem of my having no Internet. For most situations, because I have a (now outdated) local mirror of the repository, most of my software installation is free and easy, however, when I cannot get what I need through the repo, it becomes significantly more difficult to install new software. Checking for dependencies by hand is something I thought I had stopped having to do five years ago. Here, Windows has a time-saving advantage, with most Windows applications coming with bundled libraries and dependencies. Though this may significantly, and unnecessarily increase file size in some situations, in terms of time-savings, it can be a life-saver. What can I say, I am American, it’s in my culture to pay for convenience. If paying a few extra shillings to download a larger-than-necessary, dependency-packaged .exe file and save myself headache and 10 minutes is the option, I will gladly take it.

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One response to “Linux: Ubuntu In My Lab

  1. Great post on some of the problems with ITC in Africa. USB viruses are the bane of all volunteers existence. Do you have all your teachers put an autorun.inf folder on the drive? At least stops the virus from spreading.

    The distribution model of Linux is horribly suited for the low bandwidth experienced here, but when I used it back home in the States it was amazing! The amount of FLOSS software that is out there is amazing. Though not all of it lives up to professional standards that are definitely sufficient for everyday use. One thing I really want to do here is a photo editing class using GIMP, but the right combination of motivation and timing from my counter parts hasn’t happened yet.

    Have you looked into the games available in the Ubuntu repos. Might be another good way to get people to try them out. Personal I like simple logic games like those found in the package sgt-puzzles, but there are tons of 3-D games too.

    Thanks for the link to Camera.ie. Looks like a cool organization, need to look into it more.