(Fwd) Re: ST Helens LEA (fwd) - marketting BSD over Linux to S

[Kevin O'Connor NetWork Support]

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
From:           	Self <Kevin.RAINFORD>
To:             	L.M.D.Cranswick at dl.ac.uk (L. Cranswick),freebsd-users-admin at uk.freebsd.org
Subject:        	Re: ST Helens LEA (fwd) - marketting BSD over Linux to Students
Date sent:      	Fri, 26 May 2000 17:14:22 +0100

From:           	L.M.D.Cranswick at dl.ac.uk (L. Cranswick)
Subject:        	ST Helens LEA (fwd) - marketting BSD over Linux to Students
To:             	freebsd-users at uk.freebsd.org (Free BSD UK users List)
Date sent:      	Fri, 26 May 2000 17:01:32 +0100 (BST)

> 
> 
> Forwarded message:
> > From: "Kevin O'Connor  NetWork Support" <kevin at rainford.org.uk>
> > 
> > Just a quick one, I've just been to a meeting of the IT users group 
> > at ST. helens LEA. Several schools are talking about using Linux
> > would any members of this group be will to address them (maybe a 
> > 30 minute presentation and field some questions on FreeBSD) on 
> > why they should consider FreeBSD. I'm off to Madrid monday for a 
> > few days but if there is any interest I would like to organise it some 
> > time in the 4-6 week time frame
> > 
> > Kevin
> > 
> 
> The big marketting problem I see with FreeBSD over Linux 
> for schools/students is ease of installation with respect to
> detection of graphics cards and installation of the
> relevant X-windows.  Linux (Redhat, Mandrake, SuSE, etc)
> seems to have this - FreeBSD does not?  Getting X to work
> is potentially the most painful thing - followed by 
> network cards.
> 
> What FreeBSD options exist here compared to Linux and
> how would this be put to schools/students - where ease 
> of installation would be an issue(?)
> 
> Lachlan.
> 
> -- 
> Lachlan M. D. Cranswick
> 
> Collaborative Computational Project No 14 (CCP14)
>     for Single Crystal and Powder Diffraction
> Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington, WA4 4AD U.K
> Tel: +44-1925-603703  Fax: +44-1925-603124
> E-mail: l.cranswick at dl.ac.uk  Ext: 3703  Room C14
>                            http://www.ccp14.ac.uk
> 
> 
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> 

All St Helens schools have a connection to an authority wide 
network called Viper this provides filtered internet and e-mail 
access the requirment is mainly for a proxy server doing NAT and 
an internal web server that the kids can publish to. The skill set 
within the group varies but on the whole is high (NT4 and Novell but 
little or no knowledge of Unix type OSs. X windows is not an issue 
at this moment as desktop use would be a slow process people 
simple need to be aware of what options apart from Linux are 
available and it has to come from a source outside of the IT user 
group. As this group has already discussed FreeBSD in education 
I merely put it forward as an opportunity to get this operating 
system more widely known and talked about.

Kevin