If you guys are interested in hearing the IT directors Ted talk from 2014 here it is https://youtu.be/f8Co37GO2Fc
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There once was a school that ran Linux
“Not so!” cried so many cynics
Robert Maynard put Linux in
it made the cynics heads spin
so fast they ended up at the clinics
If you actually look up the school it is really cool. They literally give students full root access to there local machines and encourage learning. That is a bright contrast to the world of locked down Chromebooks and high surveillance
Oh man, I would have learned so much so fast by breaking stuff and having to fix it. It’s how I learned what I know now, just later. This is fantastic
The one rule (from what I read) is that students need a usable system for class. So you can’t experiment too much outside of a virtual machine.
You still have root but they politely ask you not to let experimentation get in the way of class.
That’s pretty cool yeah.
This just reminded me of a thing from my high school (many years ago). They had windows machines that were somewhat locked down, but I discovered a trivial way to bypass the restrictions on changing the desktop wallpaper. So naturally I set the background image to a screenshot of the desktop, and then hid all the actual icons.
On another timeline, the staff would have approached this with “Huh that’s clever. You fooled us and we thought the computer was broken. Please don’t do that, but also let’s channel your creativity somewhere useful.”
Instead I got a monologue about breaking things and was banned from the computer lab for a week. Soured me on school and such for a while.
You just got to be a bit more stealthy. When I was in middle school I figured out that I could completely bypass group policy if I unplugged the network cable at the right time.
When one of the school IT person questioned me I just said, I do not know why it looks like that. I also never shared my secret
That’s a nice find.
You just got to be a bit more stealthy.
Yep, but that’s not the lesson the school should be teaching, at least for it’s best interest. Fostering white hat attitudes would probably work out better. Instead I learned the authorities were idiots that can’t be reasoned with.
That is a very important lesson to learn early, because the same applies when you’re grown up.
A modern day bard
There’s a school I’ve worked at that’s got somewhat old desktops running Ubuntu. I smiled when I saw it.
Yeah my university commons and lab computers had 3 options you could select before reserving one: Windows, OSX, and Ubuntu.
Anyone else find themselves singing this headline to the tune of The House of the Rising Sun?
I hate that it lines up so perfectly, and then is missing a single syllable following “linux”.
GNU/Linux
Stallman saves the day
I didn’t before but now I am glad I did
I went to an elementary school in California that was using Linux laptops circa ~2008, I have find memories of playing Super Tux after finishing my classwork.
Found your memories?
Anyway I too played SuperTuxKart. When I was in middle school I bought a computer for $3 at a garage sale and then shortly after installed Linux on it.
Give this guy a fucking medal
Honestly he deserves it. Just listen to his ted talk
I was going to link it but I can’t find it. Can you give me a hand with that?
A nice read. A real good internal self-made infrastructure.
