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Addison UK Server Roadshow for Schools
NeTraverse writes "Addison UK is doing a Linux server roadshow demonstrating Linux at schools throughout the UK. This is a easy way for schools to see how Linux could be implimented in their school. Nice resource for those schools thinking about becoming enlightened. They are demonstating thin client computing using Linux and Windows-to-Linux migration software WinLin Terminal Server from NeTraverse..."
I think this is a good idea. It never hurts to show pupils what possibilities there are in operating systems. Otherwise they will say: 'Linux, what's that?'
initially linux is daunting if you're used to windows. buttons are in the wrong place, and my mother complains that the windows don't quite 'feel' the same and that she can't find all the same games!
but... beyond the fear of something new linux has a lot of very real applications within schools. not only does it give us the ability to teach all of the basic concepts, but it pushes beyond applications and should allow schools to focus on the core understanding of a concept (e.g. spreadsheet knowledge rather than excel know how).
i hope that the schools who have this opportunity to take a closer look will do so with an open enough mind to realise this though... but from my experience with my mother, i suspect it will take time before they do really 'get it'.
OTOH, this approach is to bring the Windows environment to Linux using thin-client computing. How does it enlighten students about Linux? Maybe they'd get the impression Linux is always meant to ape Windows?
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If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
has MS already done a similar roadshow, if not i'm sure it'll be keen to send some cheerleader squads giving out products which actually cost money to buy.
Learning a new environment is easier when someone is younger. If students are introduced to different languages early in life, they are easier to learn. I reckon OSes are quite the same. As far as mom's are concerned, I forced mine to start using Mac OS X after getting her used to Windows. She made the transition nicely (probably because she wasn't very experienced with Windows in the first place) ;)
From the NeTraverse technology section:
"Win4Lin Terminal Server 2.0 is derived from proven technologies developed for Unix® based operating systems over the last 15 years, most notably those of SCO® (Caldera®), under the product name of Merge(tm)"
I remember a SCO product named Tarentella which did something like thin clients, but wasn't good enuff in our setup. Must we promote SCOde and SCO technology in schools ?
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
If you mean compiling a version of Linux for the BBC micros still lurking in many UK schools, then yes that is a funny thought. If you mean the BBC reviving their computer education drive with their own distro, possibly sparking a new programming boom in the process, just like the old Beeb micros did, then bring it on!
--- Yx3 = Delilah ---
I think he will probably use Linux well when he's big.
Hmm... I thought that was just the way the English spelled it...
Come on, don't mod me down, just realise humour.
Have to agree, I remember when I was a nipper and had my speccy. Your Sinclair (and every other mainstream spectrum magazine) had a regular programming column that contains fun (and often useless) bits of code, the point? so you did something with your machine other than stick in a tape and hit play. You got a sense of achievement and seeing how easy it was gave you knew possibilities.
The only PC mags that have programming sections are the weightier, more serious tomes and the programs while sometimes cool (but only to geeks) lack the wide ranging appeal of those early days.
We need to return to the days where kids could really play with their machines and learn something other than how to use Windows Update.
I've just spent the last 21 months as network person at Moor Park High School in Preston, Lancs. I implemented two Linux servers which did internal www which staff could access parts of via their W:\ drive, mail, proxy (with authentication and ability to block kids by a gui), ability to reclone damaged NT/2000 workstations, quota limits for kids, staff and pupil shared areas (accessible via S:\ and T:\ drives), shell access for kids, remote KDE/GNOME desktops in a window for staff (not that they used them!)...
/etc/passwd in many ways) - such as ftp, ssh, local or XDMCP access, you can chown and chmod files and directories to them, and it just works. It can be, however, an absolute nightmare to set up, and so I've written a document on the subject and how to get past a number of random error messages here.
The whole thing cost them £400 in software. Unfortunately two weeks ago they still insisted on me spending 7 hours a week standing in a library doing duties telling kids to take their coats off... and all for less than six pounds fifty an hour (probably 9-10 USD per hour). They're now looking for three people to replace me. I've now gone self employed and am the cheapest IT person I know even at more than twice the rate they paid me.
The biggest difficulty I found with implementing Linux was getting it to understand our existing username/password database. You have several options, some of them being:
- Make everyone set a new password (bad idea - they'll want to know why)
- Use pwdump.c (available from Samba mirrors) to create an smbpasswd file from your existing NT or 2000 server.
- Use John the Ripper or L0phtcrack to crack your existing account database. This isn't such a great solution, as some passwords could take weeks to crack, and some passwords will get changed after you cracked them.
- Use Winbind, which is part of the Samba suite which will talk to your existing NT/2000 setup and make those user accounts appear as ordinary users. This is an absolutely great solution once it works; you can give them access to any service you want (it works through PAM, so it's as good as having them all in
- Read the comments in smb.conf
Management are always a problem, and it's the usual scenario: if it's Free, it has to be crap. If this is a problem, then instead of telling them how good it is, just show them. It's not difficult to find a spare unused machine in a school, or to boot Knoppix onto something, and you only need something with 16 or 32MB to install Debian or an old version of RH onto it and make it a useful server - machines of that calibre of write offs in UK schools right now with all the money the UK government are pumping into them. (This quarter alone, we had £27,000 to spend on IT - something like $40,000.)
Set something up, and implement a feature that your network lacks - quotas, web, email, cloning (use Partition Image - a much nicer replacement to Norton Ghost), proxy server (use Squid and Webmin so that your boss can easily add users to a list of banned people). Consider writing a cronjob to automatically copy everyone's home directory once a day, and then suddenly you'll be able to restore someones work from backup from any particular day or week (depending on how much hard disk space you have - a couple of cheap maxtor 80GB disks or something similar will do the job) in the space of ninety seconds *every time*. No more messing with backup tapes. (But still do tape backups, because you don't know when a lightning strike/minor earth tremor is going to destroy every hard disk...)
Write a manual. "This is how our Linux boxes were set up. The IP is this, here are the open ports, these packages were compiled from sourc
I know that some BBC hacks seem to read /. (they don't mention it but there are too many story coincidences), maybe something will get passed back. Whether the current BBC could undertake such a major project now is debatable (also whether Microsoft would let them - they have far to much influence with the current government, and such a project needs govt support as well).
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