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Aussie Uni Dumps Dual-Boot In Favor of Linux
kNIGits writes "News.com.au is reporting that the University of Wollongong have dumped their previously dual-boot installations in favour of booting Linux only. Among other reasons, staff enjoy the ease with which they can 'lock down' first year students, stopping them messing with the systems prior to learning anything about them."
If all you want is to be an MCSE, then why waste you time with college? You can take a weekend course for a few hundred bucks (instead of 4+ years for several thousand dollars). This quote from the article by Dr. Chris McDonald of UWA pretty much sums it up:
Exactly. Showing someone how to point and click isn't teaching them anything. It's only training them how to use someone else's tools (and there are books that can teach you that in 24 hours). Real computer science education, where you gain a fundamental understanding of both high and low level concepts of the computer requires more than just clicking a start button.1. Control. Whilst I would normally shudder at the thought of restricting IT access, I do appreciate UOW's desire to better manage their machines. We recently had some new machines running Win2k installed in my area, and within a day, one was in poor shape thanks to a particular idiot installing the latest Windows Media Player version on it and somehow stuffing up the OSA installation. He was able to so do thanks to the IT stroke of genius of giving everyone admin access. Whilst this may be an human issue rather than an OS one, every bit helps :)
2. Cost. We are all aware of the studies that compare the cost of Linux to other OSes. In any case, regardless of the outcome, I do know that my insitution will be spending multiple millions per year (as of next year) for desktop software licences for MS products because of the new licence arrangements. In a country that has mounting financial challenges in university funding, alternatives to MS software need to be found.
3. Ethics. Maybe this is too strong, but IMO it is not. Why should tapayer money be spent on making a single corporation (even) richer? A centre of teaching and research ought to have academic independence of multinational corporations.
These are just a few, IMO, valid thoughts about the issue. Regardless, UOW deserves to be applauded for the initiative.
I heard that your library burnt down and destroyed your only two books - and one was not even coloured in yet.
>ya. then there's that software you can get/use for free called POLICY EDITOR
You clearly don't have even the very slightest clue about what you are talking about.
Do you even know the difference between a piece of software that keeps an image of the HDD clean, clear and free of crap while emulating a small write-only partition and a policy editor that (pathetically) attempts to stop users from doing things?
The number once difference would be that deepfreeze is pretty much immune to virii. Is policy editor? No, because it doesn't work at all like deepfreeze.
This is like comparing ghost and xcopy. Sure, I could keep a backup copy of my hard drive with xcopy, but only ghost offers the bulletproof solution.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
Just because you personally don't know how to do something doesn't mean it can't be done.
Its quite possible to lock down user's desktops in linux if your familiar with linux. It doesn't sound like you are. It also sounds like your looking for a single point-n-click program to do it with. Well that just doens't exist, but it doesn't mean you can't severely limit what a linux user can do.
Its also trivial to ssh or vnc in and take over a session of kill the appropriate process if needed. I laugh in your general direction for even joking that its somehow easier to remotely troubleshoot desktops on windows.
Your also comparing apples and oranges a bit since the linux and microsoft desktop are two very different beasts.
So not its not a FACT afterall.
Also and don't take this the wrong way. Spending 40 hrs each on some distros hardly qualifies you to proclaim MS king of all administration.
In the process you made some underpayed lab technician's day a little longer. And students wonder why the lab machines crash when they go to do real work, (or they b1tch because the machines are locked down tight). e_e
Folks, the computer labs at (insert your favorite college here) aren't necessarily the best-funded part of the school, despite what you might want to believe. Depending on the administration, the college might not even have a proper IT division. The people who maintain the labs may also have to maintain the faculty and classroom computers, in addition to tutoring students and teaching classes.
Please, mentally masturbate somewhere else. No tech with a day's worth of trouble tickets needs to see how 'l33t you aren't. They've got better things to do.
(You all know what comes next:) BUT, I don't think that Windows should be completely eliminated. Windows is still the de-facto standard in industry and universities owe it to their students to give them skills they can use. It is also essential that universities maintain neutrality in the sense that they do not give the impression that they are promoting one system over another - a university's role is to eductate and do research, not dictate what the world will do or follow current fads.
Before everyone gets the wrong idea; I use the same argument to motivate the use of Linux at the university where I work (it is a very good way to teach students UNIX rather than only teaching them Windows). So what is needed is a balance.
>machines in first-year labs that used to boot from either Windows or Linux have been changed to Linux only.
That sounds like a LOT of hassle for the admins in the first place... University of Toronto has separate Linux Redhat, Win2000 with Netware, and (still a few) Solaris labs. Separate rooms, separate operating systems, just go where you need based on what you need to do. The Windows machines are even more "locked down" than the Linux ones - you can't even change the wallpaper, for example. Can't move/remove icons, can't change the start menu, can't (really) install programs. I've never seen a trashed Windows machine, whereas I've seen Linux machines that have gone belly-up with a rather pissed off admin trying to fix it. Then again, I spend more time in the Linux labs.
The dual-boot idea for a public lab makes very little sense to me in the first place - if the university's THAT desperate to save money, maybe it's not the best place to go. More likely though, the admins realized the way they were doing things wasn't really the best way, and changed to something more logical and easier to manage (and not all that new or innovative at that) - how does that constitute news??
ClutterMe.com - easiest site creation on the Net. Just click and type.
At my school the math section has linux-only PCs for the students. The CS section has Solaris (SUN) and Windows-only machines, and they justified the no-linux by saying that the companies use Windows so no point in teaching Linux to the students. I think they got it all wrong: more and more companies are migrating to Linux, and in a couple of years there will be a need for Linux experts.
GNUWin: open your Windows!
The important thing, is to not provide Free (as in beer) training to one OS vendor, radically unbalancing the competition in the OS market.
The danish goverment spend millions of dollars each year on "teaching the people to use IT", which basically boils down to giving users a training course on all M$-OS and Office products.
I suggest having a mix of OS'es, so that the students have different experiences and learn from comparing those.
I myself is a student at DAIMI where machines with SunOS, HPUX (well not that many anymore) IRIX, GNU/Linux and Windows (Using vmware), and yes it's a pain with the differences between computers but:
1. You can just select to use the same OS every time
2. You learn a lot by seeing different solutions to the same problem
SLOGEN [ http://ungdomshus.nu : Sebastian cover music]
Hmmm my bet is that while half of slashdotters are looking for the article and producing the slashdot effect the other half is busy writing "insightful" comments based on their guesses. Since the earlier you write the more likely you are moderated up, the most typical slashdotter is finally the one who does not read...
If the prestigious and world famous Department of Informatics at Wollongong University have taken this decision then I'm pretty sure the rest of the world will follow suit in short order.
This story is typical Slashdot. Small university department moves to Linux (= big story); Multinational Company switches from Sun to Microsoft (=no news).
Small earthquake in Chile, not many dead.
Yawn.
Theory A: Article never works because it's always slashdotted.
Theory B: Some of us avoid reading an article to avoid slashdotting a server.
Theory C: Some of us don't care about the topic and only want to read what others have to say. Then we randomly reply wherever we want, to stuff that was probably misinformed in the first place. If you want ontopic threads, post an ontopic summary.
Now that the mainstream is moving to XP, which is NT based and has strong multi-ID support, this advantage is quickly evaporating. Just another potential advantage frittered away, thanks to the typical Linuxite myopia...
If the program was any good in the first place, it wouldn't let you set the clock. There is no legitimate multiuser system where a normal user can diddle the clock.