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Ask Slashdot: Switching To a GNU/Linux Distribution For a Webdesign School
spadadot writes: I manage a rapidly growing webdesign school in France with 90 computers for our students, dispatched across several locations. By the end on the year it will amount to 200. Currently, they all run Windows 8 but we would love to switch to a GNU/Linux distribution (free software, easier to deploy/maintain and less licensing costs). The only thing preventing us is Adobe Photoshop which is only needed for a small amount of work. The curriculum is highly focused on coding skills (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP/MySQL) but we still need to teach our students how to extract images from a PSD template. The industry format for graphic designs is PSD so The Gimp (XCF) is not really an option. Running a Windows VM on every workstation would be hard to setup (we redeploy all our PCs every 3 months) and just as costly as the current setup. Every classroom has at least 20Mbit/s — 1Mbit/s ADSL connection so maybe setting up a centralized virtualization server would work? How many Windows/Photoshop licenses would we need then? Anything else Slashdot would recommend?
Not a hobbyist.... for God's sake, don't trust this to a hobbyist.
I've seen some mighty capable hobbyists and some downright retarded experts. If you're looking to admin this on a budget, you're not going to get a windows *or* Linux expert. On the other side, a windows admin is likely going to be far less versatile than a comparably capable Linux admin. This is largely due to the fact that windows admins usually get taught, and Linux admins usually teach themselves. If you want a problem solver, which do you think would make a better candidate?
A linux hobbyist will probably be able to get the job done, just be prepared for it to take a little longer.
If you really want to try something different, replace all of those new PCs with RPi2's. Where I work, we have PCs on the manufacturing floor, but they have a realtively low life expectancy as they get pushed around a lot. I've been actively replacing them with Pi2's. At first, the admins were unhappy about it, but when the CIO found out how much were were saving by virtue of not having to replace $500 PCS all the time, I got the green light to replace *existing* machines before they were destroyed. The old PCs that still worked are now being re purposed and used elsewhere. Admining the Pi2s is pretty damn easy too, we have a master Image of the SDCard, and when something gets hosed, we just pop a new SDcard with a default image into the Pi, and off to the races. Even copying the images doesn't cost us much time anymore, since we got a 1 to 7 SDcard burner. Just plug em in, kick it off an 20 minutes later, 7 brand new boot cards...
Even an 8GB card has plenty of room on it for running a full LAMP server, X server, and all the Linux based tools. Granted you cant run unity (would you really want to?) and it would take a while to compile something hefty, but for most classroom type projects it would compile fast enough (I use them for doing compilation work, and the results are acceptable) and xubuntu is pretty damn easy to use considering how little resources it needs. With a little extra work, you could configure them to load a home directory from a single file server so that the students wouldn't even need to worry about loosing their work if they damage the Pi.
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I'm a seasoned pro webdev and havent touched Windows or PS in years. Gimp does most of the gfx work just fine, especially with the modern flatty designs. As does Inkscape for the vector work.
I do use a mac though - less hassle with the gui and some neat tools unavailable on Linux (SourceTree, Kaleidoscope, Transmit, etc.) but those are tools you definitely don't need for learning.
My advice: ... Train your students on Atom or Brackets and learn and teach Grunt, Gulp or both and build a webdev pipeline with those. Build a pipeline that your students can take with them on their career. Way more worth than learning Adobe crap.
Move to Ubuntu LTS right now and set up one Mac Mini in every classroom if you must teach your students PS filters and the Adobe Suite. Although I wouldn't.
The one thing desperately missing on Linux is a FOSS Git gui that doesn't suck. You'll have to get a bundle licence for SmartGit - it's Java, but it's OK. As a full blow IDE Netbeans and the Netbeans Chrome extension + perhaps FF WebDev Edition are are the tools of the trade. All FOSS, all perfectly at home on Ubuntu.
For testing set up VBox on every PC and pull the official Windows Browser Webdev Testing VMs. They only run an hour before needing a virtual restart, but they're perfect for Testing IE and Spartan.
What ever you do, spare yourself and you Students the hassle with remote desktop.
Good luck with your business.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca