Slashdot Mirror
A Public Library's Linux Success Story
Joe Barr writes "What with the spate of professionally PR-generated FUD coming out of Redmond about Linux not being open source, or Windows having a lower TCO, and - believe it or not - even a claim that Windows is more reliable, it's good to read about some real world, grass-root results of successful migrations from Windows to Linux. This story at NewsForge takes a look at the Howard County (Maryland) Public Library's roll-out of over 200 public-use PCs, which used to run on Windows and now run on a custom Linux distribution called Lumix."
Most libraries are stuck with Windows simply because they don't have enough money to move away (it does COST money to get everything working with linux) or because they're required to stay with Microsoft because their systems were donated by Microsoft or one of the related foundations. Lots of libraries are very, very tight on budget and simply can't afford the initial cost of the switchover.
Geoffeg
Lumix info is here
They mentioned that they had trouble locking down the system. I am surprised that they didn't use KDE and its kiosk mode. It allows you to specify any setting in any kde application and lock it down so users can't change it. There is even a GUI tool in beta right now that lets set and lock the settings.
-Benjamin Meyer
Do you changes clothes while making the "chee-chee-cha-cha-choh" transformation sound?
See here See Here
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
You missed it because it broke just today.
http://de.samba.org/samba/docs/man/howto/samba-
Samba-3 is capable of acting as a Backup Domain Controller (BDC) to another Samba Primary Domain Controller (PDC). A Samba-3 PDC can operate with an LDAP Account backend. The LDAP backend can be either a common master LDAP server, or a slave server. The use of a slave LDAP server has the benefit that when the master is down, clients may still be able to log onto the network. This effectively gives Samba a high degree of scalability and is an effective solution for large organizations. If you use an LDAP slave server for a PDC, you will need to ensure the master's continued availability - if the slave finds it's master down at the wrong time, you will have stability and operational problems.
I have dual-boot, so I can compare a bit:
Games:
XP: Lots, some older 98 games broken
Linux: Less, some windows games work via Wine, increasing support (Doom3, HL2) expected
Internet:
XP: Firefox/IE
Linux: Firefox
Email:
XP: Thunderbird
Linux: Thunderbird
Media:
XP: Winamp, WMP
Linux: XMMS/MPlayer (DVD's sometimes an issue)
P2P:
XP: KazaaLite, Emule
Linux: Emule
IM:
XP: MSN 6.1, GAIM
Linux: GAIM
Office:
XP: MS/OpenOffice
Linux: OpenOffice
CD Burning:
XP: Nero, lots of others
Linux: MKCD, lots of others
DVD Burning:
XP: Many suck, currently testing ULead DVD Workshop 2 (awesome)
Linux: Experimenting (suggestions welcome)
Those are my regular activities. Some of the other stuff may or may not work in linux
But this is addressed by the last three paragraphs of the article.
Of course, all of this could be laughed off if it wasn't for the fact that he actually has a good point. Last week, Red Hat announced that it would no longer support Red Hat Linux 9. Instead, it is directing all users to its Red Hat Enterprise Linux Platform.
And what's the difference between the two? Why, one is free and the other isn't. Guess which is which. Red Hat also announced yesterday that it is producing a desktop version that it will aim directly at enterprise customers - a move that it knows full well puts it directly in the way of Microsoft.
Only time will tell whether Red Hat's growing confidence has caused it to face up to Microsoft too soon, but one thing is for certain - by appearing to cut ties with the open source movement, it has given Microsoft a new and potentially ruinous line of attack.
I live in HoCo too. Luis and Mike spoke at the Columbia Area LUG in March. It was a great and very informative talk. We were all hoping they'd get some coverage for what they've done. Also read the article by their manager in the Library Journal. That kind of article will reach far more library-types than any discussion on Slashdot, and will probably be a lot more influential. Libraries are a great place to introduce people to Linux. Way to go guys!
I mod down all the "free iPod"-sig losers.
I live in Howard County. After a semester in college, I spent my winter break living at home. When I went to the library, I noticed that the library was running linux on their terminals. They've done a very good job setting up their computers to suit everyone's needs. The free wifi is a great service, too.
~The log of the limit is equal to the limit of the log.
Yes, but Windows Kiosks are usually so much easier to break into.. On a software level anyway.
I always take it as a personal challenge when I see a Windows Kiosk. Most times, people don't lock out right-clicking in IE or don't lock out any/every way to get to Help or to a File/Save/Open/etc dialog.
I remember a few times when I would be at a block of kiosk machines and the person next to me was trying to reach her school webmail login, but of course the Address Bar was locked out. This person was very happy when I walked away from my kiosk, which had REAL Internet Explorer windows open, instead of these half-ass, half-locked browsers written in VB or something..
Anyway, let this be a lesson if you're setting up a kiosk. If you use Windows, lock it down and lock it down well. Don't let people reach a program that can lead to Explorer (From IE: Right Click -> View Source -> Notepad -> File -> Open -> Right Click on Explorer.exe in Windows folder, choose 'Open'). If you use Linux, use init's auto-respawning abilities to your advantage. Leave yourself a single way in, with password protection. Remember, even n00bs might know Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to kill X11.
If you're looking for small and simple, I've found that Damn Small Linux is excellent. It provides a simple, small linux distro that'll fit on one of those little business card cd-rs. It's running fluxbox as a windows manager and includes a whole slew of applications in 50MB of space. Check out the website.
why does the porridge bird lay his eggs in the air?
I'm a programmer for a library automation software provider. The switch to Linux for many libraries just isn't practical. Of course the desktop licenses for Microsoft aren't cheap, but even more expensive are the licenses from the ILS (integrated library system) providers. Of course, most of the viable solutions are Microsoft only and the cost of switching to a Linux or cross platform solution, like the one developed here, is just not feasible. The initial costs of one of these systems can be very expensive; remember that many libraries interact in 'consortia', trading books and data in many ways to reduce cost. To change software vendors is a very expensive project indeed, one that can cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars, plus, of course, the yearly service contracts for support, bugfixes, upgrades.. The company that I work for uses client side Java and C on the server side. Most of our libraries use Windows on the client side, but some use Mac and the use of Linux is on the rise. The server also runs on Linux, but HP and Sun currently see almost all of the action here, but I suspect this will change especially as some of the libraries that have switched to Linux on the server report of their success (cross your fingers) and cost savings. The biggest use of our cross-platform capability to this point has definitely been by our marketing department. I do suspect however that this ability is attractive to those wiley librarians, who are skeptical of most things and especially so of Microsoft. I suspect that as the cost of library software increases the attraction of Linux will also increase. And yes, there are Open Source efforts in the library automation domain (see http://www.ala.org/ala/lita/litapublications/ital/ volume21no1.htm#anchor338989
for an overview) but from what I've seen and read, they've got a long way to go before they are a viable solution for anything other than the simplest library. This is one programmer that won't be spending their time contributing to an open source library system.. 40hrs a week is plenty for me. :)
Some of the problems with IE "only" sites are they they are created by dummies that cannot handle making a simple HTML page with a little standards comliant JavaScrit and use JavaScript like document.all which is non-standard crap MS uses. A quick change of document.all to document.getElementById is often all that is needed.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison
Quoting parent...
The Royal Spanish Academy doesn't register this word in its Dictionary of the Spanish Language. (KDE Users: to check this, type rae:lumis on the Konqueror location bar.)
And speaking for myself, a native Spanish speaker from South America, I didn't know about the word before reading this article.
Someone mod parent down, please.
-- Look to the Rose that blows about us--"Lo, Laughing," she says, "into the World I blow..."
Install
OpenOffice.Org
Mozilla
VideoLAN
7-Zip
WinGimp
Open AntiVirus
Then see if the users can use them and get used to them. Then maybe when you do switch to Linux, they will be using the same apps, but under Linux. With maybe the exception of 7-Zip, no Linux port yet?
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Well, you'd have to be awful certain you'll be able to fulfill that promise, or in a few years when the LUGs can no longer provide that, you're gonna start reading stories about libraries having to shell out $$$ en-masse as they become unsupported and need Microsoft consultants to migrate them away.
In this case, the actual staff the library who would have had to manage the machines anyway decided to simplify their lives. They built it, they maintain it.
(I'm not saying not to run out and support your local library, but we wouldn't want to see the libraries get burned in the long-term.)
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Fear Uncertainty and Doubt.
As a Library Systems Manager in the UK who uses Dynix products (specficially Horizon and HIP), I was tempted to run iPac (the Dynix web catalogue) under a non-IE browser on our public access PCs because IE is such a dog to secure - if I could only have a pound for each time someone's right clicked an image and chosen "set as desktop item"! :-D
Sadly the developers at Dynix have fallen into the old trap of designing it specifically for IE (in fact, it should really have a "this site works best with IE" sticker on it) - to get it looking half decent with Mozilla you need to do a huge amount of XSL and CSS hacking. That wouldn't be too bad if the updates to iPac didn't nuke all the changes you'd made!
It's also obvious from the iPac bug list that they've only checked the iPac JavaScript with IE, and for a long time it didn't even work with Opera.
> Ahhh yes, but there is still Fedora... Speaking of RH Enterprise, can the source be downloaded for free?
You get the source code for everything in the box with the CDs. The GPL ensures that binaries cannot be distributed without also giving away the source code - if you're not giving somebody a binary copy, they don't need the source code either.
However, Fedora is basically RH Enterprise unstable. Redhat is essentially following the Debian development model now, with Fedora stable releases being the equivalent of "testing", Fedora beta and development being the equivalent of "unstable", and RHEL is the equivalent of "stable" (because who runs pure Debian stable except for enterprises anyway?) RHEL is just older versions of the same software with security patches applied and thoroughly tested to work together. Oh, plus a support contract.
In post-9/11 America, the CIA interrogates YOU!