Building a Linux Computer Lab for Schools? 464
joseamuniz asks: "After giving Linux classes to Secondary School Teachers, I got in touch with a non-profit organization called UNETE. This association has donated 1,523 computer labs to public schools in Mexico. I told them about Linux, and they are interested in equipping a beta computer lab with this Operating System, with Intel PIII, 256 MB RAM PCs. The more they like this lab, the higher chances to include Linux in the new labs donated by this institution." What hardware configurations and software packages would you install on such a machine to show off the real power of Linux in an educational environment?
Wow .. what a coincidence.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Great, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
Security? Control? (Score:2, Interesting)
Knoppix and USB Sticks (Score:1, Interesting)
First, protect the investment. (Score:5, Interesting)
This means you'll probably need a more beefey (at least in hard drive space) server that this lab will live off of, but I assume you already knew that.
distro (Score:4, Interesting)
Freeduc (Score:2, Interesting)
Maple (Score:3, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
mmm, my high school used linux... (Score:5, Interesting)
They didn't have a big budget for the computers, so they used the old 386 (true, I've used them!) and a bunch of old machines, bought a dual Xeon 733 MHz server, and ran LTSP on the whole thing. They had a special file server with a quota of about 1 Gig for students in their home directory, which was plenty, and a separate mail server.
I think that if you install those PIII with LTSP you'll be missing out on responsiveness, so instead maybe install the same distro on all of them, and use a NIS domain for login (with gdm, or even better, Entrance, which is prettier than gdm to look at!) and getting one machine with several drives to use as NFS server for the
Then if you want to start a multimedia class, it turns out a lot of people are actually thrilled when using Blender [blender3d.org]. A whole bunch of people active on Blender forums right now are not much older than 13. I've basically taught my Linux professor at Gould to use blender, and the Advanced Linux class at the same time.
I think that's plenty of things to show eye-candy and the real horse-power you can get in the managing of such a lab with linux.
Also, most of these programs have spanish localizations, iirc.
Re:This is bad for the students (Score:2, Interesting)
I know that Michigan State has MS labs, Solaris labs, and Mac labs. Most of their CS research was done on Solaris. Same thing at University of Michigan.
Granted, not everyone has to use the non-MS labs. But people still do.
There are enough GUI environments that mirror Windows that they won't have to "relearn" the whole OS. And OpenOffice does a good job at being very similar to Word.
If they're learning to admin systems, however, yeah, there is a world of difference...
mod parent up (Score:1, Interesting)
Don't mod somebody down because his opinion is different than yours.
Here is an experiment. Get a PC with specs similar to those in this article. Do a default install of Windows 2000 and Mandrake 10 or Windows XP and Fedora 3. Do some standard computing tasks like word processing (I guess you would need to install Office 2000 / XP for this), web browsing, file management, and maybe some light applications and games. Then come back and tell me which system was more responsive. I guarantee you that it will be Windows.
I know I will get flamed for this, but the truth speaks for itself. Try it for yourself.
Re:Great, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd suggest having some simple programming languages, like Logo or BASIC, and some games that run under those languages. Text games that require simple arithmetic or planning ahead to win are great. If the students manage to figure out how to use the languages to start modifying the games, or making their own, then that's a bonus.
Re:This is bad for the students (Score:3, Interesting)
You havn't been to the College of Computing computer lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology then. It has about 75-100 computers and dual boots RedHat and Windows 2000. Interestingly, most of the time you will find that the students actually prefer RedHat, and if you want to boot into Windows you will have to restart. Granted, this lab is mostly used by CS majors since it is located in the College of Computing, but Linux obviously doesn't prohibit them from getting real work done at all. In fact, one of the indroductory courses (used to be called CS 2130, it has been morphed into something new now) requires the use of Linux in the lab.
Re:This is bad for the students (Score:2, Interesting)
When I was in 6th Grade, TRS-80s were in my grade school. For 8th Grade "Graduation", I got my own C-64. In High School, I used TRS-80s at one school, and Apple II's at another. A friend had one of those IBM PCs; you know, a PC JR?
I know that architecture and OS's really aren't evolving as drastically as they did then, but I hope you get my point. I'm more concerned about my students learning concepts than specifics. If my goal is for them to be able to use a word processor, we use both Word and OpenOffice. If my goal is for them to be able to make a web page, we use DreamWeaver and Notepad.
It should be easy enough for non-geeks to look for a word processor or web browser icon on the desktop, if the flavor of Linux is set up properly. Taking the time to get 1 install right is worth it, when setting up a lab of identical machines. I only have 20 PCs in our biggest lab (we're a small private school), but I still make a recovery DVD that I can use to re-image a system and have it usable for a class.
Obviously, with OSS, the legal hassles that can occur with multiple PCs using the same image are minimal.
And if Windows/Office are that much easier to use, then it should be no big deal for them to learn to use them when they reach university.
Why do I use MS so much if I feel this way? Private schools are forced to choose between what is best and what the parents think is best for the students. I must balance cost-effectiveness with what parents will demand their children have access to.
Re:First things first... (Score:3, Interesting)
Helloooooo have you ever been to Mexico? (Score:4, Interesting)
I live in Mexico City and we're SURROUNDED by "ducky" schools teaching you to be a "computer technician bachelor", and they teach you Windows, Word, and all that crap.
You can find cybercafe's every 2 or 3 blocks.
People in here use MS Word to use their homeworks. Go to a cafe and you'll see thousands of "Learn Word" books, booklets, magazines, etc. You can buy the tutorials off the streets.
Children in elementary already use Word for their homeworks. Most kids I know already got a MSN account (just don't ask me about their grammar or *shudder* spelling).
In other words, no, we don't need any more Microsoft training, thank you.
And with the current trends, Linux will be much more popular 10 years from now. Want to prepare them for the future? Teach them Linux.
Re:Wow .. what a coincidence.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Doesn't show off the power (Score:2, Interesting)
And of course nothing teaches wacky computer-land physics like a quality game of Scorched Earth.
Re:mod parent up (Score:2, Interesting)
I have done this sort of thing before, and have had the same results. Something that most people seem to miss is that, while we all prefer Linux, it is a resource hog.
Mandrake and a few others are now taking up more the 200 MB of physical RAM. Windows and it's GUI only use about 60 MB. There is a major difference in the usage here as well. Older computers can benefit from Windows, or it could benefit from Linux.
It all depends on the distro used.
My $0.02 worth. For what it's worth.
Re:Hardware configurations (Score:3, Interesting)
Just for fun about a year ago I installed Linux on an old 486 SX my in-laws were throwing out. There is something surreal about combining software with up to the minute security and bug fixes with a ~10 year old computer and a ~6 year old network and sound card, and then turning around and using pretty much the same software to interface with digital video and still cameras and wireless network cards that weren't even conceived of when 486s were cutting edge.
If you haven't checked out Linux in a couple of years, look again. In my opinion, Linux is well beyond the catch up stage and is starting to lead the pack in some areas. As an example of free software being ahead of its time, one of my recent configuration frustrations has been trying to keep a handful of applications like mplayer [mplayerhq.hu] from using IPv6 by default. Look at the hardened gentoo [gentoo.org] project for another example of Linux leading the pack.
Re:First things first... (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh, I dunno; I remember back in the 90's, when MIT had these rooms full of "public" workstations. There was a sign up on the wall reminding people of the root password. They were all the same, of course. If you thought it was insecure, well, they invited you to try to use the password to damage anyone's stuff other than your own. (Every once in a long while, someone actually succeeded.
If you think this is "certifiable" behavior, well, I'd agree. It would certify you as knowing something about security.
Yeah, all sorts of spyware got installed on idle systems, especially keyloggers. That's why one of the first lessons for users was how to reboot, which would download a new kernel from a secure server. The boot sequence would verify the system directories, and download anything that showed signs of tampering. Not a big deal. Your home directory would be mounted from one of the servers, too, of course. The rest of the disk was scratch; anything you used there was your problem.
Not that I'd expect your typical high-school admin to understand any of this. But they could keep a lookout for the bright "hacker" type kids, and put them in charge of the system. That should pretty much take care of it.
Re:Great, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
Sure you can.
It's called WAREZ.
How do you think India became a pseudo-power over the past 10 years, on retail copies with legit licenses? NOT!
Like the folks at AutoCAD or Microsoft could give a damn about a bunch of twelve year old impoverished school kids in the middle of Mexico using their software.
Commentaries from a Mexican (Score:1, Interesting)
Any way, Miguel de Icaza (surely the best mexican hacker) addressed last March the Mexican President and the Secretaria de Comunicaciones y Transporte (FCC equivalent) and told them about the advantages of open source software http://primates.ximian.com/~miguel/emexico2.html [ximian.com] (in spanish). At the end, Bill Gates paid a visit to president Fox and the eMexico project was done on Windows machines.
I find it hard to really move the Linux initiative to Mexico. I told my film-mayoring roomate (I'm studying at the US) that I was installing another version of Linux and he told me "really, do you code and shit?", I told some bussiness-mayoring mexican friends who live here, and all I got was "what's that?". There's much more to be done than you think.
For what it's worth, I know of a elementary school that uses Linux on all it's computers. A friend of mine teaches there and says she likes it, "it's prettier".
Linex (Score:1, Interesting)
http://www.linex.org/index.php
Re:Great, but... (Score:2, Interesting)
I especially liked the part where you (might) have a couple of not-too-clear screenshots of what this thing was supposed to do and then have to make the decision of whether to spend that kind of time poking those numbers in. There was one session where my brother and I stayed up 36+ hours entering the program and the damn thing didn't even run. Going back into the memory to see which number you fsck'ed up got to be very wearing...
On a complete tangent, I learned 68000 assembly on the C64 using guide books from Jim Butterfield(?). Actually helped me out in college.