 it s monday NUMBER NUMBER september NUMBER student life begins with linux by john sterne the launch last month of a marketing special interest group by the irish linux users group ilug open source and marketing it seems might not be mutually exclusive concepts has already sparked an interesting initiative at university college cork when the new academic year begins at ucc every incoming student will be offered a copy of red hat linux NUMBER NUMBER ilug member braun brelin proposed this promotion when he ran a training class for staff at the ucc computer science department brelin who is the director of technology at openapp says that the linux offer could be extended to any or all of the other irish universities the user group is tapping into an international red hat programme that aims to introduce students at all levels to the open source style of computing the linux distributor runs an educational channel to reach this audience bundling educational software with its operating environment and offering networked support services to eligible applicants this scheme was originally designed to suit the educational structures in the us but is now available to schools and universities throughout the world red hat linux NUMBER NUMBER incorporates ease of use and maintenance features and is intended to counter objections that linux is hard to master on personal systems the linux for all project at ucc could also raise the profile of red hat ireland based in cork this operation has run shared financial services for other red hat offices in europe since NUMBER until now its involvement with users in ireland has been fairly limited although it does sometimes refer them to other red hat offices in europe that offer consulting or technical support services david owens red hat s director of global logistics and production sees the formation of the ilug marketing group as a reason to take a more proactive approach in the last three months he notes his office in cork has received more and more calls from irish companies that are interested in adopting linux and has introduced some to red hat pre sales consultants many thanks are due to braun and david for working together on this one regards l irish linux users group ilug URL URL for un subscription information list maintainer listmaster URL 