Re: Gnome for Educational Usage

["Matt Jezorek" <matt bluelinux org>]

Actually this "version" of gnome will be included in a complete educational
distribution as the default desktop. But yes we do have to build the
distribution for people who are workstation straped. We are building this
solution because so many schools are cash strapped.

-Matt
http://www.bluelinux.org
http://edu.bluelinux.org

----- Original Message -----
From: "David T. Bath" <David Bath edipost auspost com au>
To: <gnome-list gnome org>
Cc: <matt bluelinux org>; <kfv101 psu edu>
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2001 11:42 AM
Subject: Re: Gnome for Educational Usage


> On Thu, 6 Sep 2001 00:31, Matt (matt bluelinux org) wrote:
> > Has anyone tried or know of a project that is working to simplify the
> > Gnome interface for educational purposes. I posted a similar quesiton to
> > the KDE Edu group and I got laughed at I feel.
>
> Well, though I *do* like both KDE and Gnome, and have to admit to KDE
> being <gasbestos>prettier to the user (esp with 2.2)</gasbestos> but
> <kasbestos>uglier because of C++ requirements</kasbestos>, Gnome has
> one important thing KDE lacks: a kTelsa ;-)
>
> That said, consider how many kids in late primary and early secondary
> school are being given their parents' hand-me-down computers that
> can no longer run the latest M$Office, and are ripping M$ off and
> putting linux on.  All it takes is *cerebellar* not *cerebral*
> training to get used to right-click, middle-clicks, etc.  Thats
> the same as going to a M$ box that has been futzed to hell and gone.
> And the kiddy-winks learn faster than us old fogies.
>
> On Thu, 6 Sep 2001 00:31, Kevin (kfv101 psu edu) wrote:
> > My point here, though, is that there is no central place to do what
> > you want.
>
> Kevins comments were good.  But perhaps it is worthwhile mentioning
> stuff geared towards the LANs I think you will be using in schools.
>
> A couple of pts.  I assume you are possibly a bit cash-strapped,
> and even grunt-strapped on the workstations.  Here is where a lot of
> standard unix and X sysadmin hacking comes in handy.  These are
> applicable to both Gnome and KDE.
>
> 1.  Consider what you would do to get an old NCD-X-terminal or
>     near-diskless linux station happening.  My preference is to
>     have enough disk for booting, a local swap and /tmp partition,
>     and then NFS (or AFS or CODA....) nearly everything else.
>     Solve these issues and you are half-way home.
>
> 2.  Consider the use of links (hard or soft where appropriate) for
>     configuration files and directories.  By pointing to read-only
>     areas, users cannot "fiddle" (successfully!).
>
> 3.  *DO* set up an X font server.  If your workstations are fixed,
>     then include it in XF86Config, else during the startup of the
>     Xsessions, run a quick test to see if the fontserver is up and
>     then "xset +fp ...." stuff.  (Laptop XFree86 Config files that
>     mention unavailable font servers tend not to start)
>
> 4.  Do use ssh to run things on other boxes.  (OK, not singing
>     dancing rapidly moving graphics stuff).
>
> Sometimes I pine for the good-ol-days of $XAPPLRESDIR and xrdb,
> although again, that had its problems.
>
> One of the things I have been contemplating are the various axes
> of configuration information.
>    host v display
>    display v screen
>    user v host
>    host v system
>    defaults based on primary gid (or equivalent)
>
> For example, across many hosts on the same network, I want the
> same configuration details describing the data I want to manipulate
> (such as an address book), but perhaps different programs (on this
> big box I use gtk-emacs, on a little one I use gvim as editors),
> and certainly with different font sizes and window positions based
> on the dimensions of the PHYSICAL screen, not the $DISPLAY which
> is correctly mangled with pseudo-$DISPLAYs by sshd if you are using
> X-authentication forwarding).
>
> None of this is easy, and I have no solutions, just problems.
>
> Another thing for both kde and gnome gurus to nut out jointly like WM1.0
> --
> David T. Bath - David Bath edipost auspost com au
> Soon Moving To: David Bath auspost com au
> When studying pathology I learnt that MS harms your brain.
> #include <disclaim.h>
> +61 3 9204 8713 (w)   0418 316 634 (M)
>