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While teacher "Karen" was clearly operating under the assumption that she'd scored a minor victory for the Microsofts and other downtrodden software giants of the world, the particular operating system that she ended up disciplining her student for was a freely distributable version of Linux.
To wit, the following is part of an email that the teacher sent to the person who originally provided said Linux to the student (bolding added by us for emphasis):
...observed one of my students with a group of other children gathered around his laptop. Upon looking at his computer, I saw he was giving a demonstration of some sort. The student was showing the ability of the laptop and handing out Linux disks. After confiscating the disks I called a confrence [sic] with the student and that is how I came to discover you and your organization.Mr. Starks, I am sure you strongly believe in what you are doing but I cannot either support your efforts or allow them to happen in my classroom. At this point, I am not sure what you are doing is legal. No software is free and spreading that misconception is harmful.
These children look up to adults for guidance and discipline. I will research this as time allows and I want to assure you, if you are doing anything illegal, I will pursue charges as the law allows. Mr. Starks, I along with many others tried Linux during college and I assure you, the claims you make are grossly over-stated and hinge on falsehoods. I admire your attempts in getting computers in the hands of disadvantaged people but putting linux on these machines is holding our kids back.
This is a world where Windows runs on virtually every computer, and putting on a carnival show for an operating system is not helping these children at all.
What makes the story especially poignant, besides the teacher's disparagingly defeatist attitude, is that the copy of Linux was originally provided to this student courtesy of the Austin-based HeliOS Project, which builds and provides Linux computers to disadvantaged or "exceptionally promising" students. It seems that this kid was merely showing his friends, in an albeit super-nerdy fashion, that there existed an alternative to bloated and overpriced operating systems.
Starks responded on the HeliOS blog, saying:
And please...investigate to your heart's content. You are about to have your eyes opened, that is if you actually investigate anything at all. Linux is a free as-in-cost and free as-in-license operating system. It was designed specifically for those purposes. Linux is used to free people from Microsoft. The fact that you seem to believe that Microsoft is the end all and be-all is actually funny in a sad sort of way. Then again, being a good NEA member, you would spout the Union line. Microsoft has pumped tens of millions of dollars into your union. Of course you are going to "recommend" Microsoft Windows". To do otherwise would probably get you reprimanded at the least and fired at the worst. You are only doing what you've been instructed to do.You've been trained well.
His full response, plus the ensuing comments storm, makes for prime reading. We're hoping that Miss Karen decides to abandon her quixotic quest to "pursue charges as the law allows," because doing otherwise will only subject this state's already-abysmal education system to further ridicule.
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I have no real working idea as to why this is funny, but I do find it truly hilarious.
"I along with many others tried Linux during college..."
I wish I had never tried Linux during college. It really fucked up my future.
Wait, she "tried linux in college"?
What other youthful experimentation is she hiding?
"What are you doing with this operating system?"
"I learned it from watching you, mom!"
It's hilarious because that teacher is a big bozo, themo. She's so angry and defensive but she has no idea wtf she's writing about.
That and the "tried linux in college". That's fucking hilarious.
Maybe she just graduated. Phoenix Online?
Seriously? Well, I'm still in college, and it was at UT that I "tried Linux" and I've been smokin' it since 2005! If that lady is so jaded as to believe that software can in no way be free, or that no one in their right mind would SHARE their source code, then Microsoft really has won.
I commend that kid for breaking out of the Micro/Apple box and for being so enthused about Linux and being willing to try an OS which is just about fully compatible with everything Windows wants to do.
Screw you "Karen"! Every time you open your mouth, Microsoft kills a penguin.
It's clear from the rest of the story that you understand that Linux, like other free software, is freely redistributable. However, I was kind of alarmed by the way you characterized the discs as "bootleg CDs" in the lede. My primary concern is that a casual reader might come away confused about the legal status of GNU/Linux. The concept of free software is hard enough for many people to understand, so the suggestion that the CDs weren't 100% legit might further muddle their comprehension of the story.
A few of the comments in the first linked story suggested that Stark has a happen of over-dramatizing his interactions with institutions or seeking press attention. It would be interesting to hear what AISD has to say about this matter.
I tried Linux in college. But I didn't inhale.
For years I thought that the people who said linux was ready for the desktop were on crack, so the drug analogies make perfect sense.
There is a unix that works for regular people. Apple puts it on their machines. Linux will probably never get there. (and I use it every day, but I'm a CS guy).
seriously, mcchris? a casual reader who's never followed a story that changes POV? perhaps one who graduated with our teacher-in-question.
Compliments on the tag "No Teacher Left Behind."
@leggyblonde, the use of "bootleg" is in the lede, so I don't see how it's changing point-of-view. If it were in a quote, I could see what you mean, but here, it's the voice of the author both in the lede and in the rest of the post.
It's not good to assume readers read past the lede, anyway.
I, too, have to good-naturedly call out Allen for his choice of words.
Its not a bootleg copy if rights are freely given.
This story is burning up the geek news grapevine, I'm sure we'll be hearing more about it.
This is your brain.
This is your brain on Linux. Any questions? Just say NO to freeware. This message brought to you by Microsoft.
The teacher has been trained well, indeed. I'm sure by now he/she knows that they were wrong.
We, however, will not hear any response from AISD since apologizing is un-American.
At my job (software related) the guys that make the most money in the room run linux.....all the schelps like me are stuck with windows....
Maybe when that kid codes the next facebook and retires at 30 he can look her up and call her and let her know just how far his "stolen OS" got him.
and seriously.... if she even googled it she'd have known.....
To me it's not near as shocking as it is entertaining. When your a kid in public school you're lucky to be in contact with 2 teachers a day worth anything. If you had to be intelligent and capable the job would pay more than it does.
Until the public demands something more for teachers they will keep filling seats with people like "karen".
"and seriously.... if she even googled it she'd have known....."
Whoa, hold on there, google? She probably uses msn.com's LiveSearch.
I agree with Chris. Using the term 'bootleg' in the voice of the writer of the article is misleading. It should have been prefaced with something like, 'an apparently bootlegged copy...' or 'what the teacher believed was a bootleg copy...'
Seth
good feedback, guys! i've updated that line.
Heh, I'm sure this happens but do we have any details about this incident? What school etc?
I don't see any referenced material at all.
I call shenanigans. Especially after the "I tried Linux during college" comment. I LOLed at it, but it also makes me think more of the Onion than a real news item.
Anyone got some hard data?
@mystery white boy
"When your a kid in public school you're lucky to be in contact with 2 teachers a day worth anything. If you had to be intelligent and capable the job would pay more than it does."
Really? Putting down all public school teachers for one teacher's stupid mistake? I am a teacher in AISD and I work amazing and talented people who care a lot about their students, no matter what we get paid. And yes, people make mistakes. I find this one funny, too. I do not, however, think it's a testament to all teachers being unintelligent.
Damn, he should have popped open the GPL and made her read the first two paragraphs. I've used Linux for over 10 years when I scored a job as a sysadmin and worked with Redhat all day.
People like this seriously irritate me, they're so caught up in proprietary licenses they can't accept the fact that there's a license for free distribution.
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.txt
If the job paid more than it does, more intelligent and capable people would apply themselves to teaching.
Teaching is extremely hard work. Given the constraints of the public school system, it's almost miraculous that anyone can excel at it.
Pay attention here folks. Especially any who doubted the failure of the Prussian School System.
The end product is complacent worker drones and obedient soldiers not individuals that can think independently. In that respect our schools are functioning exactly as designed.
If instead you think the schools are to educate our children and to teach them to think for themselves then that is where the system fails and miserably.
Public Education in this country is NOT designed to benefit the child but the Government.
Have you ever asked yourself why the folks that write the laws we must follow don't send their children to public schools ?
Who here is Really surprised when we graduate High School students that can not read or write above the sixth grade level ? {Some no higher than the fourth grade.]
How smart do you want the soldiers and worker drones to be ? Smart enough to realize they are being exploited ? Perish the thought.
Where would we get the Brute types that smash doors and shoot unarmed women and children BUT are "Only following Orders" ?
How would we explain to an actually intelligent human that it is OK to abuse another human being because this piece of paper says to do so ?
How could we get millions of people to "voluntarily" donate up to 35% of any money they get, in compensation for their labors, to an amorphous organization, with no control or review systems that actually work, called Government ?
Personally I would abolish the Department of Education [both nationally and locally] and allow private schools to proliferate as well as removing all restrictions on home schooling.
The thing that most folks don't hear publicly is that Most [but not all I grant] home schooled children score Better across the whole battery of "Tests" than public school educated children.
This teacher [Karen ?] should be allowed to return to college where she can actually finish her education. Independent Thought might be a good starting place.
Capt
Some interesting followup at
http://twitter.com/helios17
@Cshell: It's true that all we seem to have at the moment is the word of Ken Starks of HeliOS Solutions, but it would certainly be odd, at the least, if it turned out he decided to make up this story out of whole cloth and commit libel or slander against AISD in the process. Doesn't seem worth it.
@profstevie: I don't trust M$ as far as I can throw em, and I can't throw em far... but I don't think Ken doesn't have his own interests at heart too. Maybe he didn't make it up, but he is ready to adhere to it's veracity in a moment.
Let us not see the cause of Open Source so well as we are ready to accept ANY example without verifying the source.
If all things that set this skepticism off. MS Union? Am I wrong, but Texas doesn't allow workers unions? (seriously, I might be wrong but I was under this assumption...)
Cshell wrote, "Texas doesn't allow workers unions."
Do you reside in Texas? If so, a cursory look at a local newspaper will probably mention a union operating in Texas.
A state not allowing unions would be a violation of the Bill Of Rights.
Texas, just like all of the 50 states in the USA allows workers to form unions. Workers in Texas are presently represented by such unions as the United Auto Workers, United Steelworkers, National Education Association, unions of the AFL-CIO and many, many more.
And Capt. is proven to be a douchebag...like the rest of you zealots....
http://linuxlock.blogspot.com/2008/12/character-assasinations-aint-us.html
"
The student did get his Linux disks back after the class. [b]The lad was being disruptive, but that wasn't mentioned.[/b] Neither was the obvious fact that when she saw a gaggle of giggling 8th grade boys gathered around a laptop, the last thing she expected to see on that screen was a spinning cube.
[b]She didn't know what was on those disks he was handing out. It could have been porn, viral .exe's...any number of things. When she heard that an adult had given him some of the disks to hand out, her spidey-senses started tingling. [/b]Couple this with the fact that she truly was ignorant of honest-to-goodness free software, and you have some fairly impressive conclusion-jumping.
In a couple of ways, I am guilty of it too."
(quote) In an age where Windows and OS X reign supreme (/quote)
The first sentence written for this story puts in in the same category as the teacher.
Narrow Minded!
Let's see, Windows is superior in getting viruses, spyware, registry errors, BSOD's and costs too much money for it and supporting software.
What is so sad about this story is the teacher's reaction. I always thought a teacher was supposed to teach their students to explore and open their minds to new concepts.
Instead we see another fine example of a narrow minded educational system that disciplines and makes an example out of any student who doesn't follow the 'norm'.
Amazing that Linux is illegal and nothing more then a carnival show yet provides more functionality and software in the initial install then Windows does.
Time for the educational system to wake up and smell the coffee beans because Linux is growing exponentially every day.
And fire that teacher for infringing on that student's right to independent thinking!
TaZMAn
Ubuntu 4 you
Hi
Could you please notice this?
It's not Linux. It's GNU/Linux. (See http://www.gnu.org/gnu/the-gnu-project.html. [gnu.org])
Thanx
Hi
Could you please notice this?
It's not Linux. It's GNU/Linux. (See http://www.gnu.org/gnu/the-gnu-project.html. [gnu.org])
Thanx
It seems that peace has been made between all concerned and apologies made.
Apparently the teacher is trying Linux out with the help of Mr Starks and Mr Starks has reported back to one thread that a significant portion of the areas education system's machines run linux or unix and some run Mac-OS. Only 2/3rds run Windows - a smaller fraction than is used in the general population, although different reports give different percentages of Linux + Unix + MacOs usage but all put it very low. Apparently Mr Starks is in negotiations with the AISD technology director although the issue of dual-boots (or is that duel-boots lol) doesn't seem to have been raised and there also seems to be an assumption that technical support and user support staff only know Windows which i find unlikely. Having worked in User-support in England i found that admitting a knowledge of linux makes people nervous. I feel i have some understanding of how a pilot feels after admitting seeing a UFO, lol. Except that linux is easier to experience and the only proof that there's intelligent life out there is that it hasn't tried to contact us openly.
So that just leaves residual feelings and arguments floating around on the internet. I think we just need to admit to having a bit of egg on our face and let it all go. Forgive and forget. Ghandi said "An eye for eye and the whole world goes blind"
A very positive outcome
Happy new year all :)
Linux has many variants that are great for consumers. Unfortunately, most of them have the money to spend, and spend it where the media tell them to. Additionally, most people are also lazy and stupid. Watching them try to use a new operating system that isn't exactly like what they already know is really depressing. Graphical queues get TOTALLY ignored in favor of looking to see if the thing they want is where it was when they were using a different OS. Prejudice can be overcome with exposure to diversity and ultimately, with the introduction of a new generation. The adults are lost, and only the young can be expected to make rational choices. Ironically, as this teacher's email shows, it is the young and poor who will most readily take up Linux.
this article proves that every person named karen is a bitch
Not all pork is ham.
Good article , unfortunately this is exactly why I consider most teachers unqualified to teach comp si or any thing with computers.
The union has a lock on these stiffs and most skilled geeks are in the private sector for good reason.