Slashdot Mirror
Hawaii Puts Old Computers To Work in Linux Labs
johnp pastes "'As pressure mounts to meet state-mandated educational technology standards, some Hawai'i schools with limited budgets are getting updated computer labs at a fraction of the typical costs.'"
At first I thought this was some kind of joke or something (the ALOHA system? in Hawaii?), but it turns out the above poster is actually right. http://www.laynetworks.com/ALOHA%20PROTOCOL.htm
How can the TCO of Linux possibly be higher than Windows? I manage the network of a small company, with som PCs and a Linux file server. The Windows machines are taking 90% of the work time to manage. The Linux system sits there humming along, while the Windows machines get infected, clogged down and what not. So far, for the company (a small one), the Linux server has cost them 0$ since they recycled an old server, whereas the Windows is 900$ in new hardware for XP + 4 manhours last week trying to remove the about:blank spyware shit. And they are even running in non-priveliged accounts! + Countless more man-hours setting it up, trying to locate drivers etc. Windows has not a lower TCO than Linux, in my experince.
LOL. I've been managed a classroom with 16 Windows 95 computers with 0 (zero, none) hours per month to manage it.
The system drive (C:) were read-only and it was allowed to save files only on D: drive or Windows NT4.0 server in users folders.
All writes to drive C: were stored only in memory, after reboot - system drive (with all files, registry, settings, software) were exactly as it was at date of original configuration.
Even more - there were no GHost at thouse times, I've to spend a 45 minutes to wrote a disk duplication via network program on Pascal for DOS !! If worked just fine. To duplicate 16 PCs after reconfiguration it takes only 3-4 hours !
I tend to believe that you are doing something wrong with your OS.
It does not matter that OS you are using, it's matter how !!
Yep. You need to be a Guru to manage Windows network, that's why a lot of admins preffer "user-friendy" *NIX.
They are probably using the servers to forward applications to the client display, which is easy to do under X, though I know that there are many guys from Hawaii active on the http://k12ltsp.org/ mailing list, so they could just be thin clients, but the article makes it sound ontherwise.
Either way, the applications run on the server, and is displayed on the client, so that's how the old computers work just as fast as new ones.
Put identity in the browser.
Hi all, I'm the teacher that runs the lab at Liholiho Elementary, so I guess you could call me the horse's mouth. We're not talking about enterprise level business here, we're talking about a school that must fundraise for a tech budget. I know nothing about the TCO studies you're referring to. I just know what has happened here. With the help of our fantastic Hawaii LUG (HOSEF) and the great folks on the K12OSN email list, we have spent zero, that's $0.00 on support for the year that we've been using K12LTSP. I'm not saying we'll never need paid tech support, I'm just reporting what is fact (not marketing fluff). The great part about being a part of the OSS community is the willingness of people across the globe to help you for free, out of the goodness of their hearts, or their passion for the cause. I wonder if the same would be true from the "M$ community?" It seems like the bulk of the M$ support community is motivated by billable hours. P. Nakashima pnakashi -at- k12.hi.us Computer Teacher Liholiho Elementary School