Linux in the Nashua Telegraph

[Bill Sconce]

I just came across this.  Good publicity, captures the spirit (and drawbacks)
well.  I'm involved a little - teaching "Bash 101" and Python.

David Brooks "gets" Free software.  He even mentions our own "Linux guru Jon
'maddog' Hall of Amherst".   Calls him "typical"...  :)

-Bill



    Forget the apple; surprise teacher with open-source software

    http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060628/COLUMNISTS03/106280090/-1/opinion

    Few things are quite so technically cutting edge as open-source
    software, which is why you expect to see it used by really cutting-edge
    folks.

    Like . . . kindergarten teachers?

    "I'm discovering the switchover isn't as horrible as I feared it
    would be," said Kim Stinson, one of three primary-level teachers
    from the Orono, Maine, public school system.

          - - -

    "On my budget, I wasn't about to get Photoshop licenses for every
    kid," said Russ Wiesenauer, a computer teacher at Jaffrey-Rindge
    Middle School.  So he downloaded Gimp, a free, open-source graphics
    program that's less powerful than Photoshop but powerful enough
    for him, and helped an art teacher use it for a digital-photo class.

    "That was one of the most satisfying teaching experiences I've
    ever been part of," he said.