Linux on the Education Desktop: Bringing the Glocal into the Technical Communication Classroom

The chapter discusses the Linux success stories in US educational settings belong mostly to server-side solutions where, for example, an email server running Windows® is replaced with Linux. It begins by briefly acknowledging the worldwide success of Linux in the server and enterprise solutions market as well as its growth in the handheld device market. The chapter explores what we can learn from Europe's successful large-scale adoptions of Linux particularly in educational contexts by focusing on an autonomous region of Spain that, until recently, relied on a customized version of the Debian Linux distribution. It presents specific educational strategies professional communication instructors can use to bring these Linux success stories. The chapter discusses how to integrate the ideas into the professional communication classroom in order to help students better understand how the notion of combined global and local (or global) can affect international markets for and uses of technologies.