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NZ School Goes Open Source Amid Microsoft Mandate
Dan Jones writes "Kiwis have built an entire school IT system out of open source software, in less than two months, despite a deal between the New Zealand government and Microsoft that effectively mandates the use of Microsoft products in the country's schools. Albany Senior High School in the northern suburbs of Auckland has been running an entirely open source infrastructure since it opened in 2009. It's using a range of applications like OpenOffice, Moodle for education content, Mahara for student portfolios, and Koha for the library catalogue. Ubuntu Linux is on the desktop and Mandriva provides the server. Interestingly, the school will move into new purpose-built premises this year, which include a dedicated server room design based on standard New Zealand school requirements, including four racks each capable of holding 48 servers for its main systems. The main infrastructure at Albany Senior High only requires four servers, suggesting an almost 50-fold saving on hardware requirements."
I just installed Ubuntu on my kid's computer, and I must say it still has relatively poor UI design. It's still a geek toy half-ass trying to be "user-friendly". Common things are not made easy and intuitive. I had to type text paths to set up folder shortcuts on the desktops, for example, and once set up could not change the paths without starting over. Setting up a place for common desktop items, equivalent to Windows "all users", was a bear.
It needs some real hands-on user-in-action observations rather than features that geeks THINK users want. Geeks know technology, but they don't know users. I was generally disappointed. Sure, Windows sometimes has stupid conventions also, but in order to unseat Windows you have be better, not a mere peer in annoyingness.
Table-ized A.I.
you MIGHT have saved a few bucks at the students expense. bravo.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Mod parent up! I agree fully apart from the 2xDL380s, we use a couple more servers than that for extras like Terminal Services (to run god aweful school managment software - MUSAC) and one for all the internet/email filtering and security. Everything else like email, av control, centralized video library, library software, centralized applications etc are virtualized. Every school that I have encountered using a non-windows/mac system for both clients and servers is filled with unhappy teachers and students with half functional IT that they can't figure out how to use or has other issues that make it more work than it should be. These schools usually with some media savy attention seeker at the helm who usually appear to care far more about their social position than providing a learning environment. Have seen plenty happy with linux server side even though they are stuck using XP because of incompatibilities in the way the preffered supported dist is made.
There is no mandate for NZ schools to use Microsoft software. There is a collective agreement (one of many agreements, including one with Apple), and the schools have always been able to choose the software they want.
Standard slashdot bias and hype. FUD FUD FUD
Agreed. Also, the fact that newly constructed schools spec out 4x48 racks doesn't say anything about how many U are typically consumed in a Microsoft solution shows bad editorializing. New construction also likely calls for 2" conduit in each wall for future cabling needs, but it certainly doesn't imply that using MS software would require 2" diameter worth of wires to be pulled to fill those conduits.
I'd applaud the school for using low-to-no-cost solutions in-house were it not for the fact they're basically teaching the kids on platforms they - statistically speaking - will never use in the real world. Monopoly is bad, but denying reality is worse.
"Oh no... he found the
Not to mention the additional costs in teaching the teachers the systems and the inherently hidden wasted costs of teaching the kids the system. When that is taken into consideration, I would expect the savings to rapidly dissipate.