Schools and the hard IT choice
By Todd DuLude | July 6, 2007
People generally have a strong preference when it comes to their desktop computer. However, bulk purchasing meant to cut costs determine the platform educational institutions use. Microsoft and Apple have been notoriously unfriendly to the bottom line of school districts for years.
In the back rooms of many school districts sit servers that have worked uninterrupted for years. They’re veritable workhorses that rarely need maintenance or have suffered infiltration by some vicious hacker. It’s a good chance that some form of Linux resides on those machines.
With pressure to upgrade, Linux is beginning to venture out of the back room and onto the desktop. Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 could very well be the answer to the school system at an operating system crossroad. It labels itself as 90% the functionality of Windows Vista for 10% the cost.
With pressure to upgrade desktop stations, Linux is beginning to look good to many schools.
If that’s too steep try the completely free Ubuntu and its variety of sub-distributions such as Edubuntu (the educationally pre-packaged version). This system customarily installs in about twenty minutes and is fast becoming the wunderkind of the Linux world. They’ll even send you a fully bootable CD of the system at their cost if you don’t have the time or the connection to download a copy. Don’t want to install it over your current OS? Run the complete version from the CD!
To be sure, the choice is one for the future as districts begin to look at ways to save the almighty buck.
Here are six compelling reasons to consider Linux as an operating system in your school district:
- Cost or Lack Thereof. Most versions of Linux are free… in the sense of “free speech” not a “free lunch.” By this I mean that the community that improves on this operating system does it collectively and with passion. “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume…” (Excerpted from the Declaration of Independence). Yikes! A bit heavy for this article.
- It’ll Surf. Students primarily use the web. Installed desktop applications are becoming passé with all of the innovations from Google and other completely online services such as Zoho and Desktoptwo. They need a reliable machine and they need the internet!
- Comparable Software. The majority of the software available holds to the same philosophy as the OS: open and free. It is astonishingly easy to find a freely downloadable replacement for a higher-priced commercial product. For the few desktop apps I’d use it would be wonderful to be able to say to my students that this is where you’ll go to download it rather than to this store to buy it.
- Reliability. Linux has already established a stronghold with many notable companies such as Google, Novell, HP and Oracle to support their website presences on the server side. These companies understand that Linux runs and runs without security breaches and downtime which they can’t afford. Anyone who has ever worked in an IT department knows the sheer panic that ensues when the server is down.
- Use of Existing Hardware. Linux allows you to use aged hardware thus extending the life of the computer and holding at bay Moore’s Law. I’m currently running SUSE on a three-year old machine and its stunning built-in features designed to increase productivity such as window-tiling and multiple desktops do not miss a beat. I didn’t even have to replace my graphics card as was suggested by the Microsoft Vista Upgrade Advisor!
- Appeal. Students need other experiences and in most cases they are the flexible group when it comes to technology. As Linux becomes more and more friendly to use it will begin to wear down the folks who may still be bitter over the fiscally responsible choice.
Further reading:
- Linux definitely has a place in education [Education IT]
- All of our Elementary School workstations run Linux… [
Kamloops, BC SD 73] - San Diego schools pick SUSE Linux desktop [DesktopLinux.com]
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