Listening to the show I see some of the tllts'ers gripping about education. I actually think the opposite. There is great software exclusively for linux that you can do to improve education using linux that you just can't do from Windows. You got much more software often because Linux usually gets a lot of support from the academia.
I think you guys want to play catchup to the commercial education software and dismissing all the great efforts from the OSS communities that build that bridge in education.
About the video, you guys seem very proficient in things like Theora, what is the difference of payin for the DVD, ripping it and streaming as a theora. And thn you dont have to use any other stuff that makes it illegal.
This is like the linux people using MSN.
Video Codecs and Education
Moderators: snarkout, Patrick, dann
Video Codecs and Education
Alexandro COLORADO
Once you start getting into higher level courses there is a more robust offerring of software for academia. In the k12 environment there is only a handful. Now mind you, that handful is some pretty fantastic stuff.
If you sit down and actually look through a catalog from scholastic you'll notice tons of applications that will mostly run on Windows, some on OS 7.5 and up, a smattering for OS X but never do I see Linux compatibility. Next factor in that a sizeable chunk of these application suites have moved to a psuedo-network system (I say psuedo because most of the time they do a horrible job) where progress is tracked and stored on a server app. Not too many of those in Linux.
But again, I do want to iterate that I am in no way dismissing the fantastic software that the Linux community has developed.
With regards to video codecs and such, you cannot legally play those on Linux thus this further impairs a Linux workstation in the education environment. A student can sit down at a windows 98 system, play all these education applications, surf the web and watch just about any video. This cannot be done legally under Linux right now.
It comes down to a packaged deal here which makes it hard to convince the powers that be to go with a Linux desktop. ruling out the arguments that we already use Windows, everyone uses Windows, people are more comfortable with Windows; it's hard to say well going with Linux means you will not be able to use any of these applications you already have or are thinking of purchasing or are in any of these catalogs and oh, you won't be able to watch most of the videos from the streaming service you subscribed to because it's illegal to install the codecs on Linux in this country.
As for ripping the DVD to theora, sure we could do that. But I don't want to do that. I want to pop it in and play it legally. I don't want to have to go through the process of ripping the dvd and then transcoding it to a different format. There should be no reason why I cannot watch a dvd on my Linux box.
We can extend this further. Why not pull the videos off the web and transcode them into theora for the distributor. I mean they are making it available for me to watch free of charge but in a codec that I cannot legally use under Linux. But now I am stealing someone's content and redistributing it. Even though this would most likely result in no economic gain on my part.
If you sit down and actually look through a catalog from scholastic you'll notice tons of applications that will mostly run on Windows, some on OS 7.5 and up, a smattering for OS X but never do I see Linux compatibility. Next factor in that a sizeable chunk of these application suites have moved to a psuedo-network system (I say psuedo because most of the time they do a horrible job) where progress is tracked and stored on a server app. Not too many of those in Linux.
But again, I do want to iterate that I am in no way dismissing the fantastic software that the Linux community has developed.
With regards to video codecs and such, you cannot legally play those on Linux thus this further impairs a Linux workstation in the education environment. A student can sit down at a windows 98 system, play all these education applications, surf the web and watch just about any video. This cannot be done legally under Linux right now.
It comes down to a packaged deal here which makes it hard to convince the powers that be to go with a Linux desktop. ruling out the arguments that we already use Windows, everyone uses Windows, people are more comfortable with Windows; it's hard to say well going with Linux means you will not be able to use any of these applications you already have or are thinking of purchasing or are in any of these catalogs and oh, you won't be able to watch most of the videos from the streaming service you subscribed to because it's illegal to install the codecs on Linux in this country.
As for ripping the DVD to theora, sure we could do that. But I don't want to do that. I want to pop it in and play it legally. I don't want to have to go through the process of ripping the dvd and then transcoding it to a different format. There should be no reason why I cannot watch a dvd on my Linux box.
We can extend this further. Why not pull the videos off the web and transcode them into theora for the distributor. I mean they are making it available for me to watch free of charge but in a codec that I cannot legally use under Linux. But now I am stealing someone's content and redistributing it. Even though this would most likely result in no economic gain on my part.