The industry is starting to voice their opinion on changing to Linux on the desktop. "SLED 10 is hands down the most polished desktop Linux distribution I’ve ever used — and that includes Ubuntu. If Novell can sustain the level of effort it put into this release for future versions, SLED will rapidly become a serious contender for enterprise workstation use. " I would encourage you to read the entire article at http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/06/16/79142_25TCsled_1.html

Whether you try Novell's version or another, I encourage you to start moving in this direction. We will have Windows through out most of our schools for many years to come, but our students may be walking into a shop that is all Linux in the near future and we should at least expose them to some of the technology. I personally know a number of organizations that have switched over. There are also entire governments in the world that have switched over exclusively to Linux. Even in the US, a bastion of Microsoft, a number of government entities have switched to open source only.

Here in Westbrook we are adding a Linux section to BCIS, BCIS II, 6-8 Technology Applications, and a Gimp section to all the graphics classes. Windows will still be primary, but Open Source will be added as appropriate. This past year I piloted a number of students taking notes with a Wiki and this year all students will try using a Wiki. I also started training teachers to use them to update one of their class pages on the school's web site. We hope to start a networking certification class this coming school year and Linux will be one of the certification areas.

Many teachers get stuck in a rut and find themselves doing the same thing from year to year. Technology teachers do not have this option. If technology teachers must change, the question centers around how often they change and if their students are on the leading edge or the trailing edge. With technology budgets the way they are, we are stuck with software and equipment longer than we should be. However, with Open Source we can bring in new software all the time and at least that area can be leading edge for our students.

Dirk D Dykstra