On 28/09/11 12:44, Roger wrote:

On 28/09/11 11:48, Liam McCallum wrote:

My proprietary rage level is rising.....

> Unfortunately due to the supply contract the school is locked down to

> only what Acer permits on the computers.

> Installing anything other than windows apps is not permitted.

I second Daniels comments;

> May be a way around this. Install VirtualBox and the VM file on a portable USB drive. This will only appear

> as a drive on the laptop. VirtualBox is a Windows app. And the VM is not on the computer in that case. That

> may satisfy the "ignorants". Surely they are not locking out external drives!

Why not run linux through a USB or some such equivalent. It will circumvent the contract conditions and provides a broader platform to use FOSS applications. With out knowing to many of the details

A: Students may already have a large enough USB device or can get there hands on one for relatively cheap or

B: Can organise to purchase some for the class

C: There are a huge range of linux distros for USB see www.pendrivelinux.com

There would be a fair amount of work to organise, implement this for a group of class of '20' students, but the payoff is greater freedom.

Regards

Liam

Students would and do happily use pure linux at home but -- 'school says No'
They are not permitted to use their own computers or usb sticks and virtualbox is bigNO.
Surveillance monitors the computers.

I do think there are some serious educational and padagogical issues.

Consider this scenario:

As a School Teacher and with due professional ethical consideration, I consider that it is in the best interest of the students that they learn about Operating Systems at a very basic level in tune with the level they are at in their studies . And the best way for that to happen is for students to be able to come to experience and compare a variety of Operating Systems: Windows 9X, Windows XP, Win 7, BSD, Linux, BeOS, OpenSolaris in a safe environment. And therefore providing access to these OS's in a VM environment is a viable option, economically and technically.

If this is put forward for its educational merits to the School Council and School Administration, what School Principal could possibly object to that, with equally due professional ethics and as someone who has the best interest of students in mind? and if so, could he or she please explain his/her reasons for objections to a purely padagogical exercise? And what parent could possibly prefer to see his/her child NOT be able to learn about something new?

The point I make is that this issue may have to be shifted to an educational one forefront instead of being bogged down on software technical and OS platform issues.

Daniel.

Hence the question originally posed.
Thanks anyway
Roger

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