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We got a guy out here in Hawaii doing that too. I'm about to take a couple of P3's to him that I would have just dumped before.

http://www.hosef.org/

Here in Hawaii there is a group doing this using Linux and everything. They take old donated computers and set up Linux labs in schools.

http://www.hosef.org/

Our method of advocacy has been to recycle computers that we in turn donate to schools and non-profits. More often than not we use the K12LTSP in order to take advantage of discarded hardware. It is critical to keep in mind that getting a school to embrace FOSS is only 16% of the work. The real challenge is in creating a competent culture of self-reliance and sustainability, aka Training.

Our position is that if an end-user is comfortable with the GUI in Windows or Mac, then the migration to FOSS is trivial. However, if one struggles with either of the proprietary distros, they can expect to be equally challenged by FOSS. The fact that it is free does not make it easier.

We are at a critical transition in our education system. Schools have no business spending taxpayer dollars on Commodity Computing Solutions. Most NCLB focused apps are web-based. Proprietary, curricula-enhancing apps purchased for stand-alone installs are an entrepreneurial opportunity awaiting you. Code an alternative that is more culturally sensitive to your district's needs. We can no longer afford to spend money on software and hardware that does not contribute to the value of education.

Absolutely! HOSEF, here in Hawaii, has had great success with K12LTSP using older PCs as thin clients.

HOSEF (Hawaii Open Source Education Foundation) has been doing this for years and it has been EXTREMELY sucessful.

They have a WIKI describing the general process but much more info can be obtained from contacting them directly or joining the mailing list.

I've browsed through many comments in this story and many seem to think Linux for one reason or another will not work in a classroom environment on donated hardware. Well, it does and it can be easily managed. You do not have to re-invent the wheel either as many LUGs and organizations like HOSEF are doing it and sharing their information with others.

HOSEF (Hawaii Open Source Education Foundation) has been doing this for years and it has been EXTREMELY sucessful.

They have a WIKI describing the general process but much more info can be obtained from contacting them directly or joining the mailing list.

I've browsed through many comments in this story and many seem to think Linux for one reason or another will not work in a classroom environment on donated hardware. Well, it does and it can be easily managed. You do not have to re-invent the wheel either as many LUGs and organizations like HOSEF are doing it and sharing their information with others.

HOSEF (Hawaii Open Source Education Foundation) has been doing this for years and it has been EXTREMELY sucessful.

They have a WIKI describing the general process but much more info can be obtained from contacting them directly or joining the mailing list.

I've browsed through many comments in this story and many seem to think Linux for one reason or another will not work in a classroom environment on donated hardware. Well, it does and it can be easily managed. You do not have to re-invent the wheel either as many LUGs and organizations like HOSEF are doing it and sharing their information with others.

I, too, would love to see this in my local schools. I think the way to make that happen is a variation on the old "Think globally. Act locally." ideal in that we need to act at both ends of the spectrum. It's awesome that you jumped right to finding something local to act on, but remember that a failure in Hawaii will make a local adoption less likely. So, in addition to your local efforts, here are two thoughts thoughts on global action which would help smooth local adoption.

Send a few dollars to the Hawaii Open Source Education Foundation, and it doesn't have to be a lot. $10 would help defray printing costs of handouts and cheat sheets for teachers and students. $20 is a significant portion of the cost of a flight between islands. $100 would help replace a blown monitor.

Contribute time to the projects these guys are using! And by that I don't mean join the mailinglist and get involved in all of the latest flamewars. I mean do some real work: bug-hunt in the areas students, educators, and administrators are likely to find problems in. Propose solutions to non-bug problem areas, and help to revise ideas with other peoples proposals. Write some test scripts. Write some code....

Peace, Love, Linux

Chris

HOSEF web site.

Details of some of the projects.
Some thank you letters.

HOSEF web site.

Details of some of the projects.
Some thank you letters.

HOSEF web site.

Details of some of the projects.
Some thank you letters.

You sound like someone who has not actually called on his local schools to see if they could benefit from a thin client lab. You don't seem to realize how many "free" computers schools refuse from their community because they are not "fast" enough for Windows. We have set up thin-client computer labs for Elementary, Middle, and High Schools here in Hawaii and have been supporting them for years. We just did one for the Boys and Girls Club. We use the K12LTSP's distribution of Linux, and, for less than $3000, we can set up a 30-station lab using donated clients and a custom-built dual opteron server.

Setting up a lab is not converting "a whole network to a new operating system." It is a lab. One of our installations is simply a typing lab. Another is used for Digital Photography. I really think you should be sure that you have more experience before you authoritatively state "this is why Skolelinux won't take off for years." We need you helping your local schools by trying before making premature conclusions. There is your solution: doing it rather than talking about why it won't work. If you want clearly defined steps, contact me.

Incidentally, we are definitely looking into migrating our installs away from the K12LTSP to Skolelinux. Fedora core vs. Debian-stable. The perpetuity of Debian and the reliability of the community make for a very bright future for Skolelinux. Kudos to the team.

I wish that this article was hysterical. It is dead on. There is no value to having the best standards based browser when the content you want or need requires IE. Let us not be so slashnocentric here.

Want to know what the biggest threat to Linux in the schools is? It is the administrators who purchase web-based software to address the NCLB mandate or other school tasks. With increasing frequency these applications require some hook that Windows provides. It is presumably innocent enough. The product meets the school's needs - The price is right. ~"Yes it does require IE, but we all use IE so no big deal." In Hawaii we witness this decision being made even while many schools still use Macs with an unsupported and underdeveloped version of IE.

We have put nearly 200 computers into schools and non-profits here. We are running into a lot of these applications in ourk12ltsp labs. A concerted effort has been made to let the vendors know that multi-platform support can result in more sales. We are letting the DOE administration know that standards compliance is of utmost importance to our schools. It is a difficult thing to communicate. The Americans with Disabilities Act may be our friend. It is in trenches like this that OSS will win or die in the marketplace.

It is not hysterical to be alarmed that the most attractive feature of any computer's OS (to the *average* user), it's browser/web access, stands to be limited by the content providers. We can rest assure that the future of China and other developing nations will not be based on using such "standards." This was most recently confirmed at the IIPI conference in Hawaii If you find a commerce site that is not W3C compliant, remind them of the potential market loss. The decision to develop these browser limiting applications are not always intentional.

I'm interested what grades/classes you teach and how well the kids were able to "adjust" to using linux though... I'm assuming minimal to zero learning curve, or were there some bumps?

Sorry, the only kids I was refering to was my offspring. Only two kids involved as far as I know! Actually they had no problem at all using it. It took them some time to get used to find things like changing the background and themes but that was it.

The Hawaii Open source Education Foundation (HOSEF) has had quite a few successful projects with OS and Linux in schools. The foundation was a LUG but has grown into a decent grouping of volunteers using OS with existing/donated equipment in schools. Worth checking out.