Feasibility of Linux for Public-Access Labs?

Benanov asks: "I'm doing a literature review on the Feasibility of Linux for a public-access lab (i.e. not Computer Science students at a university but instead the entire student body would have a login), and I haven't found any detailed studies about any places where this is actually done. If you know of any citeable sources about studies / reviews, I'd really appreciate it."

Comments

Not quite linux but...

[cvanaver]

When I went to school at Indiana, they had 'public access' UNIX labs in some of the buildings around campus. Not Linux, but Solaris and IRIX. Though they were mainly geared for graphics and CS students, anyone could get an account just be applying on a web page. I think that is a good approach to getting initial interest in the Linux labs. Start small (a couple dozen machines), put productivity software, graphics and science apps on the machines. And let people begin to use them at their leisure. If your school is anything like mine was, there are always a shortage of available public PCs and you'll find that students who wouldn't normally show up at the Linux lab, will just come for the open PCs. Make sure the lab is staffed with people who can translate from Windows to Linux, and gradually you'll gain acceptance and begin to spread out the labs.

Project Athena

[Mauler]

What you're describing has been the way
things have worked at MIT for the last
18 years (although with various Unixi,
now including Linux) starting with Project
Athena in the early 80's. Athena is where
we get X Windows and Kerberos.

Anser:

[7-Vodka]

Very feasable. My gf wanted to use my computer. I did a quick adduser and told her to log in.
She's your average windows user, don't ask her about hardware or drivers she just wants browse the web etc.
She had no trouble logging in through kdm.
she had no trouble using the default kde3 setup. All this with no help from me (i wasn't even watching)
She can check her email, browse the web, listen to music and print stuff out (thanks cups + kdeprint).

A couple of months went by, I haven't watched her use it at all...
I asked her the other day, so how do you like linux?
her answer: "It's just like using windows" and "I like the way it looks".

Seems to me unsophisticated users aren't able to set up a kde3 box but they are sure able to use one.

Illinois Institute of Technology

[Shadowhawk]

IIT did this while I was there (maybe before I signed up). Of course, it's a smaller uni, but everyone had a computer login. There were two labs for all students. One was PC, open access, connected to a Novell server. It was used mostly for typing reports. The other lab (in the basement) was direct terminals (pre-vt100) to our intranet (keep in mind, this is 10 years ago). Originally, everyone has an account for email on an acient VAX (ugh, the nightmares). However, after a few years, the bought several vt-320s and moved everyone's account to an Irix server (what a waste). Most people had a standard account name that was used for email (mostly between friends; teachers had no clue how to use it). The formula they used was first 4 characters of last name plus first 3 characters of first name. When a conflict arose, they added 1, 2, etc. I don't think I saw amything beyond 8 characters ever, but many people had shorter ids. It seemed to work well in practice.

We also had pretty fast access to the internet - no port blocking; too many Mud players (me included) and a few Muds that ran on school property (eventually went away; cool admin left). Man, those were nthe days.

Trust & familiarity

[s20451]

There's a small library near my office where there are four public access terminals. Historically they all ran Windows, but just for a laugh the sysadmin put Linux on one of them; and the users avoided the Linux machine like it was radioactive. They didn't seem to like the "weird" web browsers that it came with (Opera and Mozilla), and they had a hard time adapting to the application launcher, however trivially it seemed to differ from the Windows "Start" button. Non-technical people prefer familiarity and ease of use above all else when using a computer.

What's so new about ...x in public labs?

[magi]

For more than 10 years, practically all university students have gotten a UNIX login, and universities have been full of public terminals for students in labs and in hallways. In some richer universities, they have even had *oooh* X-terminals.

The machines have usually been Sun, but I don't think Linux would be overwhelmingly different from them...

So forgive me if I don't quite understand the question. UNIX has been a feasible solution for all students for years, and there's little reason to believe Linux wouldn't be.

Penn State

[AaronPSU79]

Right now the public computer labs here are W2K and Mac's with a few public unix labs. No one uses the unix labs except engineers and cs guys. Most people don't use the Mac's unless all the windows machines are occupied. So I think among the general student population you're gonna have a hard time getting people using Linux unless a) they are forced to or b) you provide training to incoming students on how to use it and see thats its incorporated into classes.

Re:Good and bad

[EvilTwinSkippy]

I run a 200 person windows network and would trade it in a second for Linux. First and foremost: Windows is NOT all that easy to use. Our help desk has to do just about everything for our users from setting up printers to bailing their asses out of locked programs. People do not know Windows nearly as well as the industry would have us believe. (Or MS Office for that matter, If I get one more request for a manual I am going to scream.)

As far as programs they are going to want to use:

• Mozilla makes a great Mail and Web client. Plus the interface is wonderful, consistent, and can be upgraded over an entire network with a shell script.
• Office Applications. MS Office, while widely used, is not very well understood by the common user. As long as you can provide something that will read Office documents, print, and spell check, they will barely notice. I have all of 5 users who know how to do more than spell check in Word. 3 of them work for the Help Desk.
• Beyond that are games and annoyances like Instant Messaging and (grrr) bonsai buddy. Do you really want people tying up workstations with that?