Ignorant Teacher Confiscates Linux CDs from Student
Ignorant Ig”no*rant, a. [F., fr. L. ignorans, -antis, p. pr.
of ignorare to be ignorant. See Ignore.]
1. Destitute of knowledge; uninstructed or uninformed;
untaught; unenlightened.
[1913 Webster]
This post on the HeliOS Blog is both revealing and frightening. Karen xxxxxxxxx, a teacher at xxxxxxxxx Middle School (AISD) must be living under a rock. A big rock. On the surface of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. I can only guess that AISD is the Austin Independent School District in Austin, TX, based on service details listed on the website of HeliOS Solutions, and Karen X teaches at one of AISD’s middle schools. Anybody know her email address? If you know Karen X, please forward this to her.
An excerpt from Karen X’s email, as posted in the above-mentioned blog:
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.
Wow.
Well, regular readers of UrsusPacificus will know that I am worried by Texas. Further, they will know that I don’t suffer imbeciles well.
Karen: Please allow me to direct your attention to a few resources which might enlighten you:
- Wikipedia article on Linux - note that MediaWiki, the software that Wikipedia runs on is free.
- The Free Software Foundation, which is the cornerstone of Free and Open Source software
- The GNU General Public License, among a host of others legally provides just the kind of freedom you claim is illegal.
- Microsoft Windows is not the only Operating System out there. It’s not even the only MS Windows-compatible Operating System.
Also, in the interest of piling on, this blog is hosted on a Debian GNU/Linux machine in my basement. I’m writing this blog post on an Acer Aspire ONE netbook, which has Ubuntu Hardy Heron (LTS) installed. No machines in my home run MS Windows (and I have 15 computers). The office I work at has 2 MS Windows laptops and one MS Windows desktop. The rest of the workstations and servers (around 40) run Linux. For free. Legally. I’ve been using Linux for free, legally, for over 10 years, and have written a fair amount about Linux ( and Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt about it propagated by Microsoft)
Karen: Please get yourself educated. If not for yourself, for your students.