Puppy Linux can cure your addiction to Windows

[fabrice_035]

Hey

My wife is a teacher for young children (~ 6-7-8 years old) and there are 6 computers in her class. (French school)

They all work with this (very good) Puppy http://asriedu.sourceforge.net/

Each computer has just one USB key and *no hard drive* now

When a student has worked well, he or she has the right to use a computer (it's the truth, it's not a joke)

And no one is afraid that something might be broken with this operating system, at worst we remake the usb key (5 minutes)

it's 'old' (~2007) equipment given by parents.

The kids are happy because they are a good applications (brain games software) !

His colleagues are happy to see Linux enter a school. And no need to buy new equipment. I'll try to get a picture to show you that !

ps: But for the work of teachers it is hard to do without Microsoft Office and other proprietary software.

But it's changing a little bit.

[foxpup]

Interesting. I like the disciplined yet careless way the children are introduced to the PC.

ps: But for the work of teachers it is hard to do without Microsoft Office and other proprietary software.

But it's changing a little bit.

What is hard without ms Office? I would like to know.
Or is it more web/browser capabilities?

[fabrice_035]

What is hard without ms Office? I would like to know.
Or is it more web/browser capabilities?

MS Office, only Office. Children adapt easily but "old" people's habits are hard to overcome
And MS Office is practically free of charge, everyone knows why.
It is a strategy of Microsoft.
( I know that there are solutions under Linux but changing people is very hard )

[foxpup]

It is true that habits are hard to change.

But it is not true that ms Office is practically free of charge.
It is quite expensive. Especially when you want newer versions and want to use it in the cloud. Then you also need a modern machine, and a new windows. This will be in the price of your machine.
Linux and LibreOffice (e.g.) are free and run very well on older machines that are cheap now.

I have to agree that schools tend to promote ms Office to their students.
In fact, they can practically force it on their students because they oblige them to use the repos in the cloud of MS as well, also for teamwork.

My experience for primary school PC's is that they absolutely need a good browser.
Children do everything on the web, in the cloud. They do not need (ms) Office and they like Linux as much as windows, or even better.
The one thing that drives them towards MS is games.

As for Office, the one hardest thing to replace is ms Excel, if you use it for data mining. Recent ms Excel, with its easy pivot tables and charts, is excellent at this.