> >>One of the things that I would like to point out is that FC is a BETA or testing product. > > > > no. its not. while its is used as a basis for RHEL, the previous > > redhat linux releases were too. so nothing has changed in that aspect > > It is pointed out on the Fedora site that FC is a testing release Yeah, I've seen that somewhere in there. I have a few thoughts which seem to want to be "freed" -- First, yes, if you use Fedora in a typical school environment, it would be wise to find a couple of students to run ahead of the pack, and let them install the updates first. That way the less motivated students won't find quite so many excuses not to do the homework. Second, FC2 is almost stable enough for me to turn my non-geek family loose on. (They would be operating in Japanese, by the way. The support for Japanese in FC2 is almost to the level of Mac OS X 10.0 on the average, and in certain technical areas is a little ahead of Mac OS X 10.3. Open office is very useable now, though it needed special help with the fonts last fall.) I mean to say, I would not have too many reservations about installing FC2 in a humanities writing lab. Third, especially for teaching computer science, I would not restrict my labs to one OS, nor would I keep them with one distribution. Plenty of "Free" OSses out there with perfectly useable licenses, and some not-so-free alternatives, as well. Mac OS X is probably good for studying a "correct" user interface. openBSD is one of several that are useful for studying networking and security issues (different angle from SELinux). Even MSWxxx would have its place in coursework on dealing with malware. And, if the school has budget that the bean counters insist should be spent on the OS, there are plenty of ways to donate to the various projects. Of course, multiple OSses do mean a bit more work for the staff, but with even just a few ambitious students to help it's not going to get too overwhelming. (And my opinions are worth what they cost.) -- Joel Rees <rees@xxxxxxxxxxx> digitcom, inc. 株式会社デジコム Kobe, Japan +81-78-672-8800 ** <http://www.ddcom.co.jp> **
