6 ms·

I think this was answered. It's bad because teachers would push for a platform they presumably know more about -- Windows.

watty 12y ago
And there's nothing wrong with that. Kids will be more productive on Windows and more likely be able to take those skills with them. How many kids need to know linux in the future? Here's what the Linux trend looks like: http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=linux http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=linux
- aruggirello 12y ago
  'linux' is a single keyword, while GNU/Linux OS might show up as a wide set of different keywords, like ubuntu, debian, mint, arch, centos, rhel, fedora, gentoo, opensuse. Note that this is not the case with Windows, iOS, OSX. So, it would be interesting to see the combined interest of all those added to that of 'linux' for a more correct perspective - not considering Android of course, since it's not a GNU/Linux system. BTW it seems interest in Windows is also halving every ~10 years (though not as fast as 'linux'): http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=windows http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=windows
  - aruggirello 12y ago
    Edit: I was partly wrong; the matter is much more complex than that: interest in iOS and OSX might show up as interest in iPhone/iPad, and Mac/Mac OS; interest in Windows, besides any interest in 'surface', might also show up as a generic interest in 'PC' or similar terms: you can make such assumption, since anyway those interested in 'linux' or 'OSX' would probably avoid using terms generally associated with Windows.
- eterm 12y ago
  >Kids will be more productive on Windows Citation needed.
  - WorldWideWayne 12y ago
    Didn't we just establish that it's the system that kids already know more about?
    - dandelion_lover 12y ago
      Not kids. Teachers.
      - freehunter 12y ago
        Is it not more productive for teachers to teach something they know? If a kid has a question about Linux and the teacher doesn't know Linux, they won't be able to answer the question. Likewise if a kid has a question about Windows and the teacher doesn't know Windows, they can't answer it. It doesn't matter what system it is, teachers are best at teaching what they already know.
        dandelion_lover 12y ago
        If a teacher only knows DOS, he/she should teach DOS? ;)
        freehunter 12y ago
        I didn't say "should only teach". If your (obvious facetious, I know that) argument actually followed mine, it would say "A teacher only knows DOS, they would be most effective at teaching DOS". Which is true.
        yellowapple 12y ago
        The point, though, of the parent commenter was that just because a teacher can teach something "effectively" doesn't mean that something should be taught in the first place. There are plenty of teachers throughout the United States who are effective at teaching creationism to their students. I think we can all agree that doing so is not healthy for those students.
- yellowapple 12y ago
  > How many kids need to know linux in the future? All of them, if they want any hope of having a programming or system administration job (i.e. the non-executive IT jobs that pay pretty darn well) in the foreseeable future. Linux is what powers the vast majority of web servers nowadays, regardless of whether they're being run by plucky startups or long-tenured industry incumbents. Windows in the server world has effectively been relegated to legacy systems and a smattering of government websites (some of which in and of themselves also count as "legacy systems"), and that market is continuously shrinking as businesses modernize in methodology and technology.
bryondowd 12y ago
Going to play devil's advocate here. Teachers will push Windows, because they know about it and they can teach it. If you throw a pile of linux machines at teachers, how many are going to have the time, ability, and will to actually learn it well enough to teach it? It's hard enough to get a school to teach kids anything beyond using Office. I'd be happy to make things as easy as possible on the teacher who are willing to go the extra mile to teach with a Pi, without making them go another 10 miles learning a new OS to do it.
- zanny 12y ago
  Except the teacher on Windows by design cannot teach a huge chunk of the stack that makes a computer a computer. They talk about hardware, maybe a bit about the ToS breaking NT source floating around this comment section, skip over everything else and land on this theme park island of C# standard library and Windows forms. It leaves a huge gap in the childs education on computing that is one the major reasons so many people today do not even know Windows is not the only OS out there. And of course if they learn on Windows they are going to stay on Windows a huge majority of the time and it just breeds another generation of .net developers who would have a panic attack if a line didn't end in a semicolon.
  - UK-AL 12y ago
    I think modern .net devs chose the platform out of its advantages, not because its what they only know. I know fair few .net developers, and they've all had linux years, and tried various languages.
    - 72deluxe 12y ago
      All the .NET devs and classic ASP (!) devs I know were/are scared stiff of Linux, see it as a hobby environment not used widely (they obviously don't think about servers, they use Windows servers and use the magic that IIS + .NET does for them), don't see outside the Windows development world and pronounce Linux as Lyenucks. Giving them a Raspberry Pi with Linux on them would kill them. I think they should widen out.
    - 12y ago

watty 12y ago

And there's nothing wrong with that. Kids will be more productive on Windows and more likely be able to take those skills with them. How many kids need to know linux in the future? Here's what the Linux trend looks like: http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=linux http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=linux

aruggirello 12y ago
'linux' is a single keyword, while GNU/Linux OS might show up as a wide set of different keywords, like ubuntu, debian, mint, arch, centos, rhel, fedora, gentoo, opensuse. Note that this is not the case with Windows, iOS, OSX. So, it would be interesting to see the combined interest of all those added to that of 'linux' for a more correct perspective - not considering Android of course, since it's not a GNU/Linux system. BTW it seems interest in Windows is also halving every ~10 years (though not as fast as 'linux'): http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=windows http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=windows
- aruggirello 12y ago
  Edit: I was partly wrong; the matter is much more complex than that: interest in iOS and OSX might show up as interest in iPhone/iPad, and Mac/Mac OS; interest in Windows, besides any interest in 'surface', might also show up as a generic interest in 'PC' or similar terms: you can make such assumption, since anyway those interested in 'linux' or 'OSX' would probably avoid using terms generally associated with Windows.
eterm 12y ago
>Kids will be more productive on Windows Citation needed.
- WorldWideWayne 12y ago
  Didn't we just establish that it's the system that kids already know more about?
  - dandelion_lover 12y ago
    Not kids. Teachers.
    - freehunter 12y ago
      Is it not more productive for teachers to teach something they know? If a kid has a question about Linux and the teacher doesn't know Linux, they won't be able to answer the question. Likewise if a kid has a question about Windows and the teacher doesn't know Windows, they can't answer it. It doesn't matter what system it is, teachers are best at teaching what they already know.
      - dandelion_lover 12y ago
        If a teacher only knows DOS, he/she should teach DOS? ;)
        freehunter 12y ago
        I didn't say "should only teach". If your (obvious facetious, I know that) argument actually followed mine, it would say "A teacher only knows DOS, they would be most effective at teaching DOS". Which is true.
        yellowapple 12y ago
        The point, though, of the parent commenter was that just because a teacher can teach something "effectively" doesn't mean that something should be taught in the first place. There are plenty of teachers throughout the United States who are effective at teaching creationism to their students. I think we can all agree that doing so is not healthy for those students.
yellowapple 12y ago
> How many kids need to know linux in the future? All of them, if they want any hope of having a programming or system administration job (i.e. the non-executive IT jobs that pay pretty darn well) in the foreseeable future. Linux is what powers the vast majority of web servers nowadays, regardless of whether they're being run by plucky startups or long-tenured industry incumbents. Windows in the server world has effectively been relegated to legacy systems and a smattering of government websites (some of which in and of themselves also count as "legacy systems"), and that market is continuously shrinking as businesses modernize in methodology and technology.

bryondowd 12y ago

Going to play devil's advocate here. Teachers will push Windows, because they know about it and they can teach it. If you throw a pile of linux machines at teachers, how many are going to have the time, ability, and will to actually learn it well enough to teach it? It's hard enough to get a school to teach kids anything beyond using Office. I'd be happy to make things as easy as possible on the teacher who are willing to go the extra mile to teach with a Pi, without making them go another 10 miles learning a new OS to do it.

zanny 12y ago
Except the teacher on Windows by design cannot teach a huge chunk of the stack that makes a computer a computer. They talk about hardware, maybe a bit about the ToS breaking NT source floating around this comment section, skip over everything else and land on this theme park island of C# standard library and Windows forms. It leaves a huge gap in the childs education on computing that is one the major reasons so many people today do not even know Windows is not the only OS out there. And of course if they learn on Windows they are going to stay on Windows a huge majority of the time and it just breeds another generation of .net developers who would have a panic attack if a line didn't end in a semicolon.
- UK-AL 12y ago
  I think modern .net devs chose the platform out of its advantages, not because its what they only know. I know fair few .net developers, and they've all had linux years, and tried various languages.
  - 72deluxe 12y ago
    All the .NET devs and classic ASP (!) devs I know were/are scared stiff of Linux, see it as a hobby environment not used widely (they obviously don't think about servers, they use Windows servers and use the magic that IIS + .NET does for them), don't see outside the Windows development world and pronounce Linux as Lyenucks. Giving them a Raspberry Pi with Linux on them would kill them. I think they should widen out.
  - 12y ago