[TAG] NewsForge | Linux can give kids an edge

[Jimmy O'Regan]

Thomas Adam wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 18, 2004 at 12:15:31AM +0100, Jimmy O'Regan wrote:
> 
>>Newsforge has a story about teaching a kid to use Linux: 
>>http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=04/09/14/2133238
> 
> 
> Isn't that _cute_. Unfortunately, this is an isolated case. There's been
> under-currents of Linux and Schools for years now. IT staff at schools are
> trying to break away from the "deals" that the mono^H^H^H^H^HMictosoft have
> (typically this via MS-resellers that supply schools, RM [1] are a good case
> in point). 
Well, both of these stories are by people who taught their own kids to 
use Linux, which I assume is pretty common with Linux users. My son is 
pretty comfortable with Linux - he figured out how to launch Konsole, 
and use that to launch his favourite programs (tuxpaint, gcompris, 
supertux, gimp) instead of navigating through the menu.
> 
> The government want to train people up in IT - it's a well known fact. But
> what they are unwilling to do, it seems, is break away from the defacto use of
> Microsoft. Everything on the school syllabus is Microsoft-oriented. Usually
> this is nothing more than simple Office tasks such as WP, spreadsheet work,
> etc. There's nothing wrong in this, but it is limited, and limiting to the
> Real World.

My Dad was talking about this. A few years back, when his office got PCs 
with MS Office installed, the staff almost revolted because they were 
used to a different system, but they adapted; new employees were trained 
to use WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3, but learned to use MS Office. It's 
not an impossible dream; in small businesses it's mainly a matter of 
selling it to the person in the office who isn't afraid of computers - 
there always one, rarely more than one, and the boss normally does what 
they tell them.

What could help is certification. I came across a site a few months ago 
which was working on OOo certification, but I can't find it. LPI are 
working on a user cert, but there's nothing on their site yet. Employers 
look for these kinds of certs, just as other employers look for degrees 
- it saves them the trouble of testing potential employees themselves.