Everything easy is hard

[Dan McGarry]

Kevin Cole wrote:
> 
> I just got out of a meeting where we're editing an
> Edubuntu HOWTO for folks at your level... I hope.
> I've also forwarded your comments on to my co-editor.
> In the meantime, check out the tuxLab Cookbook PDF
> and other docs at:
> 
> http://wiki.edubuntu.org/EdubuntuDocumentation
> 
> We're basing the HOWTO on the tuxLab Cookbook. It's
> an EXCELLENT piece of work with regards to at least
> some of your questions.

A few technical nitpicks from the frontier:

- Could you please let us know where to find the tuxLab Cookbook in 
something other than PDF format? We pay almost USD 200 per month for 
dial-up access here in Vanuatu, which means that 9 computers are 
currently sharing one little modem. HTML is vastly more desirable than 
monolithic PDF documents.

- Could you please use static links (or proper redirects) for file links 
on this and other pages? I frequently schedule downloads of larger files 
for off-peak times using wget. This wiki's linking system doesn't seem 
to get along very nicely with wget. I haven't had time to diagnose the 
problem just yet, but if files were linked statically I wouldn't have to 
script around[*] someone else's cleverness. 8^)

[*] Which wiki software are you using, BTW? I should just submit a patch 
directly to the maintainers, as the link works properly in Firefox, but 
returns a 403 (Forbidden) to wget - that's just broken.

> Hmmm... I'm not sure which page you refer to, but if it
> was a wiki page, then it was "locked" because someone else
> was editing it.  As for the login process, if it sent you
> to Launchpad, then yeah, I can see your point about it being
> a bit tedious.  On the other hand, e-mail isn't always ideal
> for feedback either.

I would have thought that feedback to a mailing list would be the, er, 
canonical method. 8^)

What other methods of feedback are preferable?

> (See the tuxLab Cookbook mentioned above, as well as
> http://www.ltsp.org/longstory.php and maybe
> http://k12ltsp.org/contents.html for more info.)

Perhaps these links could be added here:

http://wiki.edubuntu.org/EdubuntuDocumentation/AboutEdubuntu

in the Linux Terminal Server Project section. That way, the question 
won't need to be asked again here.

> How do educators needs differ from anyone else's?  Most
> of what you mention applies to just about anyone using
> computers.  

I read the originating message as stating that these applications were 
not clearly listed in the docco, making it hard for teachers to know 
whether this particular distro actually met their needs (which as you 
rightly state are quite similar to others').

> The LTSP stuff (better explained in the
> tuxLab Cookbook) 

And, if I understand correctly, soon to be available in expanded form on 
the Edubuntu website?

Best regards from Vanuatu!

P.S. My copy of Edubuntu 5.10 is arriving in a parcel some time late 
this week. I'm really excited about kicking the tires. We've been using 
Ubuntu on public access workstations since Breezy, but had to hack 
together our own thin-client solution.

-- 
Dan McGarry	it.psl at fsp.org.vu

IT Consultant
Community Communications Project