The kids are all right with Linux

[Jason]

This is an interesting blog post about a school replacing the PCs in the class room with Linux terminals...

Even though it's short, it illustrates an important point. Why should someone spend a boatload of money for Windows licencing and dedicated PCs when they are going to primarily be used for light work like Web Surfing, Word Processing, Email, etc? Linux can do it all at a fration of the cost, and instead of having dedicated PCs for each user you can have one central server and just a bunch of (cheap) terminals for the students. Easier to manage, cheaper to maintain, and more secure.

School starts early in Georgia. The kids are all back at it.

It was on a pre-semester visit to my son’s high school that I got a shock on Friday.

The PCs were gone. In their place were banks of terminals, with small flat-panel screens, all hard-wired to the desks. A teacher’s son was messing with one, causing a reboot.

And that’s when I got the shock. Linux.

Apparently my son’s school spent the summer ripping out the old PC system and replacing it with a centralized Linux server and terminals.

Now here’s the real shocking part.

No one noticed. There’s not even a mention of it on the school Web site.

The kid who re-booted his machine didn’t notice. Within a few minutes he’d found the Firefox icon and was back on Cartoonnetwork.com. (I think he was 7.) His brothers and sisters were all happily online as well.

The new system should be more rugged than the old, the terminals are cheaper to replace, and the central system is physically inaccessible, so there will be less mischief. Before any kid can hack into it they have to learn some Linux.

Our previous years’ experience with computing has been a terrible disappointment. A few teachers got themselves Web pages, where they listed assignments and grades. Most didn’t.

Why? Because not all the kids have home access to the Web like my son. And the school system was unreliable. Let’s see what happens with Linux.

The real story is how transparent all this is. It’s much like the system my pharmacist got last year — a vendor did it and there’s no learning curve because all his applications are still there.

This is how Linux is slowly taking over. The pharmacist’s salesman gave him a better deal on printers and integration. The school system is delivering more power to more kids, with less maintenance.

Where have you seen Linux lately?

Full article @ ZDnet Blogs

[MrObvious]

Bravo...raise kids on Linux!

[Renard0abi]

The idea of the century.

[jbmcmillan]

While it being a very cost effective solution to have just a linux environment not the greatest idea.Whether you linux guys like it or not most of the business world runs on windows.That's in the office I'm not talking servers etc..Sending them out there with no windows experience is a mistake in my opinion.

[UNIXgod]

Originally Posted by jbmcmillan

While it being a very cost effective solution to have just a linux environment not the greatest idea.Whether you linux guys like it or not most of the business world runs on windows.That's in the office I'm not talking servers etc..Sending them out there with no windows experience is a mistake in my opinion.

LOL

I had to read that twice.

[afrakes]

I always thought those terminal setups were pretty neat. A lot of them store the critical data on a ROM, so it's virtually impossible to get viruses or other malware. Really they sound ideal for schools and places like that.

But as jbmcmillan pointed out, for more than browsing, Linux isn't really ready for prime-time IMO. For example, good luck working on a presentation in Impress and getting it to open properly in PowerPoint. The professional world is still dominated by Microsoft products, so you're kind of stuck using them if you are in a corporate or higher-level academic environment.

[AntiNazi]

Originally Posted by afrakes

I always thought those terminal setups were pretty neat. A lot of them store the critical data on a ROM, so it's virtually impossible to get viruses or other malware. Really they sound ideal for schools and places like that.

But as jbmcmillan pointed out, for more than browsing, Linux isn't really ready for prime-time IMO. For example, good luck working on a presentation in Impress and getting it to open properly in PowerPoint. The professional world is still dominated by Microsoft products, so you're kind of stuck using them if you are in a corporate or higher-level academic environment.

I haven't had any problems with OOo and MSOffice compatibility for some time. I did a few power points last year on OOo and they all worked fine on MSOffice

[afrakes]

Originally Posted by AntiNazi

I haven't had any problems with OOo and MSOffice compatibility for some time. I did a few power points last year on OOo and they all worked fine on MSOffice

Really? I didn't have much luck getting my Impress slides to open properly in PowerPoint. This was with Office 2003, though -- newer versions may work better.

[unclutchable]

Originally Posted by UNIXgod

LOL

I had to read that twice.

Man, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were totally biased.

Oh wait...

[AntiNazi]

Originally Posted by afrakes

Really? I didn't have much luck getting my Impress slides to open properly in PowerPoint. This was with Office 2003, though -- newer versions may work better.

seemed to work with both. Was running OOo on windows xp, don't think that really changes anything though.

[UNIXgod]

Originally Posted by unclutchable

Man, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were totally biased.

Oh wait...

I'm all about the Micro$oft mono-culture. It's simple and insecure. At this point there should be a generation of kids that are now adults whom did not grow up with the command line. I for one welcome these future clients.

[daboogas94e]

i think it was a smart move on the school district's part. but should have some PC's available for students to use

[Scubar]

You can bet the kids all go home and use Windows though to do their homework and games on.

[BRONiUS]

Learning Linux in schools is a very good idea IMO. For schools it cost less and leaves 'em spare money. Now, I doubt many students use Linux at home so they would learn to control both OS'es. Two birds with one stone if you ask me.

[Jason]

Originally Posted by jbmcmillan

While it being a very cost effective solution to have just a linux environment not the greatest idea.Whether you linux guys like it or not most of the business world runs on windows.That's in the office I'm not talking servers etc..Sending them out there with no windows experience is a mistake in my opinion.

Well, but you have to consider how tight of a budget most grade school's are on. A switch like this school did can save money in so many different ways.

Yes, many corporate offices are MS shops... Many also exclusively run Exchange (worst invention ever)... But also they have dedicated IT departments and help desks to keep those machines up and running. Because of my PC knowledge, I was usually the IT guy for my department, fixing small issues that came up daily if it was a quick fix.. Otherwise I would tell them they would have to call IT and let them do it since I had my own work to do.

Yes, like other's have said, I'm sure many of the kids have PC's at home running Windows, so they already know how to use it. But when something goes wrong at home, it's on the parent's dime to call Geek Squad or whatever to clean off the malware...

The point of the article too was that even a kid who has never used linux before was able to sit down and figure out how to do navigate the GUI and do what they need to do.

Linux is like learning a second language... Everyone might speak MS, but when you inevitably encounter Linux for something, you will be glad you learned it beforehand...

[unclutchable]

Linux works in a grade school. Partly because the kids could honestly care less what operating system they're on. All they care about is getting on the internet so they can play games. They don't know the difference.

My school uses Windows XP on all their systems, except for a few Mac's in the graphic design room. Switching from Windows to Linux in a high school would never work.

[gamer11200]

That is just awesome. Running Linux on all computers. It could really cut the education budget when it comes to purchasing computers. Also, it is more secure than Windows and doesn't require antivirus.

There is a problem though. If you are in a high school, you learn Programmng and Animation. I learned using Microsoft Visual Basic, Macromedia Flash, Autodesk 3D Studio Max, and Maya.

All of these would require the use of a windows emulator like Wine and would not perform as well as their windows version.

For an elementary school or a K-8 school, Linux would be the sensible choice

Additional Comment:

Originally Posted by unclutchable

Linux works in a grade school. Partly because the kids could honestly care less what operating system they're on. All they care about is getting on the internet so they can play games. They don't know the difference.

My school uses Windows XP on all their systems, except for a few Mac's in the graphic design room. Switching from Windows to Linux in a high school would never work.

I touched on this in my post. I posted before reading yours.

I forgot about Macs. Those things are bar none when it comes to graphic design and video editing.

[Jason]

When I was in High School, they only had Typing / Keyboarding class... There wern't any computer classes... Beyond that one room the only computers for students were for the Drafting classes (AutoCAD)... Which was anything ranging from an XT w/green screen, some 286's, 386's, and I think *maybe* one 486... We also had the old-school pen plotters... it was before the invention of the wide carriage inkjet that has superceeded that technology...

When I was in College, the first year barely anyone had an email address before coming there. I had one that was from a BBS that had an internet email gateway... (Anyone remember FidoNet?)... People logged into the VAX/VMS system via dumb terminals all around campus and used Pine to read their email... Also only a couple dorms on campus were wired with Ethernet... Within a couple years though and with the explosion of the internet thanks to the "Web Browser", every building got wired, everyone had email, and people learned to use real email clients instead... hehe...

[gamer11200]

Originally Posted by Jason

When I was in High School, they only had Typing / Keyboarding class... There wern't any computer classes... Beyond that one room the only computers for students were for the Drafting classes (AutoCAD)... Which was anything ranging from an XT w/green screen, some 286's, 386's, and I think *maybe* one 486... We also had the old-school pen plotters... it was before the invention of the wide carriage inkjet that has superceeded that technology...

When I was in College, the first year barely anyone had an email address before coming there. I had one that was from a BBS that had an internet email gateway... (Anyone remember FidoNet?)... People logged into the VAX/VMS system via dumb terminals all around campus and used Pine to read their email... Also only a couple dorms on campus were wired with Ethernet... Within a couple years though and with the explosion of the internet thanks to the "Web Browser", every building got wired, everyone had email, and people learned to use real email clients instead... hehe...

Tech sure has changed in 10 years. I remembered back in 98, playing a video or mp3 using a computer was near non-existant

[AntiNazi]

Originally Posted by unclutchable

Linux works in a grade school. Partly because the kids could honestly care less what operating system they're on. All they care about is getting on the internet so they can play games. They don't know the difference.

My school uses Windows XP on all their systems, except for a few Mac's in the graphic design room. Switching from Windows to Linux in a high school would never work.

Because you can't use the internet or an office suite on anything except windows xp.