[Techtalk] Linux in Higher Learning

[the unseen]

At Thursday, 7 June 2001, Jenny Bernard <jbernard at richmond.edu> wrote:

>On Wed, 6 Jun 2001, the unseen wrote:
>> students think that the only os out there is anything with MS in 
>> front of it and the brain - numbed professors let this happen.  In 
>> computer science departments where the focus is more technical or 
>> liberal-arts, this happens less than where the focus is on business.
>
>I totally hear you... although at the University of Richmond, a fairly
>prestigious liberal arts school, it's not really that much better. 
How 'bout them spiders :-)...I just think that's a cool mascot :-
). We have vikings (in Minnesota, that would make sense...but in 
CLEVELAND, OHIO!?!)...but the cool thing is that Haggar the Horrible 
from the comics is our mascot :-) Really.
> In one
>of my classes last semester our professor got out the projector and
>demonstrated how we should use IDE software on Windows to write our
>programs (and got confused at a few points) and how to print out the
>output from our program through this whole rigamaroll of copying and
>pasting from a DOS window into notepad.  I used vim and piped my output
>directly into a file. :) 

LMAO!  I have seen that too.  I thought that was so mundane :-). 
Windows people jump up and down and pee in their pants to talk about 
things Windows does better...but when it comes to stuff that Linux 
does better (or does that Windows doesn't), they clam up.  Hmmm..
.maybe they feel like a sucker (I know I do, I bought win me instead 
of 98 SE when I got my new system...the only real reason I have either 
of them is : (1) Macromedia doesn't put apps out for Linux--yet and 
I can't afford a Mac right now and (2) games, games, games)  

>The only class where we have talked mostly about
>Unix/Linux is operating systems, since it is much easier to study the
>kernel when it's open source!  We have our share of Unix-savvy professors
>(who tend to be the more knowledgable ones) and the ones who have
>developed such a dependency on Microsoft that they look at you strangely
>when you want to get at your files in your room by ssh-ing into your
>box.  There are maybe 3 or 4 people, myself included, in the major who
>really have any experience running Linux.  It's a bit gratifying 
to have
>my professor say, "I think they do that in Linux, don't they, Jenny?" 
but
>also a bit disturbing since I'm the only one who might know and 
there are
>a lot of things I _don't_ know.
I am looking so forward to learning about the things I don't know.
Some people are just in the program for the money.  I heard some 
guy in class ask "what is the market for Linux". Even MS loyalists 
know that people are getting Linux (why else do you think that <censored> 
<bleep> <bleeep> Steve Ballmer is calling out Linux by name?).  It's 
not that he asked a question, it's that a lot of students aren't 
that aware of current developments in their OWN major.  That's sad.

>
>> from the Charlie Brown cartoons?".  The point is the IT "professionals" 

>> that are coming out of college today have been brainwashed by their 
>> professors and the current media trends.  How can this be combatted? 
>> How can we correct this? 
>
>Unfortunately I don't have the time to start a Linux group on campus;
if
>I did, I would.  Just talking about it helps... there are some students
>that, when presented with the possibilities, they would probably 
choose to
>use Unix/Linux.  Even clueless professors might just need a little 
push.  
>I managed to completely convert one student in my class this year,
but I
>guess you have to go one person at a time.  It's a ripple effect. :)  
>There are enough people annoyed with Windows to work with... I'm being
>optimistic. :)
>
>Jenny
>
I so know what you mean. It does seem that *NIX using professors 
have more of a clue and more insight into computers than the MS loyalist 
profs.  It's almost like NT/2K admins compared to *NIX admins.  There 
are a fair amount of Win admins that know their stuff and can keep 
things in line and there are some crappy *NIX admins but from my 
dealings, *NIX admins seem to be more knowledgable than NT/2k admins.
Windows can be thrown together and it "works"..NT runs right out 
of the box. Securely. <enter raucous laughing and rolling on the 
floor here>  It takes some time to get a *NIX box running but once 
you do, you can call it the energizer battery.  

the unseen
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"this ain't no time where the usual is suitable"
					-Mos Def