[Westwales] Linux in schools

[Rob]

Hi,

Just to let you lot know, I'm a normally silent type who subscribes to this
LUG and work as a SysAdmin in one of Carmarthenshire's secondary schools.

There is a fair amount of Linux in the Carmarthenshire schools, generally as
mail servers and file servers.  We are very lucky since we have support from
an old Satellite Project, which has now evolved into the Carmarthenshire LEA
ICT Development Centre.

I only met Linux when I took the job about 18 months ago, and would love to
be able to spend more time on it.

I also believe that the school should be educating kids in IT, not training
them to use a foreign product.  It was a while back but I understand that at
one stage Wang had about 90% of the world's mainframe market, then IBM was
THE computer company.  Both almost went under, and Microsoft might go that
way too - one day.  So unless our kids are aware that there's an alternative
to the Microsoft way, they'll have a lot of catching up to do.

I would love to use Linux more, but my problem is trying to keep about 250
PCs going, along with everything from laying CAT5 to changing cartridges to
designing the web site to fixing the Admin system 'cos teachers forget their
training...   ...well, you get the picture...

The Carms techies communicate regularly, and meet for 'training' days a few
times a year.  The majority are pro Linux, and while if you already are
familiar with Linux - it's easier, if your not - there's lots of work
needing to be done.

I think all of us are interested if anyone has ideas.  I would like to set
up an after school club to encourage the kids, but I'd need a room of PC's
and I'm not confident/competent enough to set them up suitably so the kid's
couldn't scramble them and I'd need to convince the Headmaster of the
benefits of a non-MS suite too.

Would anyone be interested in a LUG meet in Carmarthen some time?

Rob Thomas

----- Original Message -----
From: "Simon Burns" <simon@ababa.org>
To: <westwales@mailman.lug.org.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 9:37 AM
Subject: Re: [Westwales] Linux in schools


> On Tue, 11 Feb 2003, James Davis wrote:
>
> >                                     In particular, can you give a good
> > arguement why schools would want to be running Linux other than "Linux
is
> > better than Microsoft"?
>
> Not wishing to start a jihad, but ... The reasons I introduced Linux
> (*alongside* W2K Advanced Server) were:
>
> 1. It's much cheaper. Even Microsoft admit their line on total cost of
> ownership lacks credibility (but that isn't necessarily an admission that
> it's not true ;) I'm always surprised that people ignore this factor so
> easily, especially since budgets in education are so tight.
>
> 2. It is easier to administer. Graphical environments look tempting, but
> it really is easier to set up a user under Linux than Windows. It's much
> easier to communicate to others (ie support staff) how to do so as well,
> since you're not describing pictures but a sequence of things the techie
> needs to type.
>
> 3. Since I program perl, it's relatively simple for me to create web-based
> systems to help users. For example, I created a help-desk app for Coleg
> Ceredigion, and a user-creation script which staff could use to set up
> accounts for new students.
>
> 4. It runs on low-cost hardware. However more powerful new PCs become,
> other vendors seem to be able to soak up the extra cycles almost by
> routine. Linux will still allow you to convert a 486 into a firewall,
> low-end server, etc.
>
> 5. Similarly, it's faster than Windows on a high-end system. Samba on
> Linux (in a file-server role, in my case) is reported to be twice as fast
> as Windows on the same box.
>
> Anyway, I'm preaching to the converted I guess. The real problem is
> convincing others of the benefits and that's more what my previous email
> was about. I'm also used to getting numerous "How do I ..." questions from
> users and technical support staff, so I was interested in how those
> support issues would be tackled. Maybe something like the "ITSysMan" list
> but specifically for Linux users in education?
>
> BTW, creating and releasing apps like the help-desk and user-creation
> scripts was one way in which I thought I could help this project, although
> I couldn't release the versions I created for Coleg Ceredigion (they don't
> belong to me). But they weren't very complicated and could be reproduced
> fairly quickly. However, I still need convincing about the project itself
> ;-)
>
> --
> Simon Burns
> [Currently commuting to Cambridge each week... :-( ]
>
>
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