[GLLUG] My Tech Suggestions

[Benjamin Cathey]

To me it sounds well thought out - I'm not sure what school system you are in.

I only see a few problems.  One being that people HATE change and getting them to change OS's is like a constant bitch-fest.  ESPECIALLY OPEN OFFICE.  I finally got everyone here to use it so we save money but people aren't happy about it and constantly say, "Well in Office all I had to do was this . . . ."  Muttering behind the IT guys back.

Admittedly something like edubuntu would work well for a school with it's thin client setup and the ability to monitor students screens and tasks and send messages.  Couple that with a stateful, reactive firewall like smoothwall and it's really nice.

The other big problem is no one want to know if you know how to type anymore or work with spreadsheets.  They want to know if you know M$ OFFICE (Excel, Word, Access) in the GENERAL workplace.  So, in a way, by not presenting those options the students may be hindered.  I wish it wasn't that way but it is.  I work in an office building and I forced everyone kicking and screaming into Open Office.  That was two years ago and they still complain about it.  No one will ask for help either, they'd rather just bitch.  Admittedly, you could use Code Weaver's Crossover Office but then you are back to buying licenses.


Geez, whole other countries switch all their schools and gov't PCs to Linux - you wouldn't think Bill Gates would have his hands that tight on the nuts of the US.  For other countries (from reading the two UK Linux Mags I subscribe to) it's more of a political issue.  They aren't as locked in to the idea that they NEED Windows as we are.

Well - that's my spiel.  Sorry to rant - it's early still and I didn't get much sleep.

I hope you get a positive response.  Maybe show them edubuntu as a replacement for Novell Netware.  The thin-client model supports MANY workstations with a single server and a bunch of PCs with bootable NICs.  Unified profiles and deployment is easy plus it has classroom management so the computer lab teacher can seen (in one window) what everyone is going and blank their screen or kill a process or send a message to them.

Good luck

Benjamin Cathey
System Administrator
Cathey Company
4917 Tranter St.
Lansing, MI 48910 USA
Phone:     517.393.4720
Fax:       517.393.4225
Toll Free: 800.333.1972
"Service is Our Profession"


----- Original Message -----
From: Steven Sayers
[mailto:sjsayers93 at gmail.com]
To: linux-user at egr.msu.edu
Sent: Wed, 26 Sep
2007 15:50:09 -0400
Subject: [GLLUG] My Tech Suggestions


>->> [I sent this to the IT guys at my school, what do you think about it]
>->> I've thought of some ways to stretch your budget when it comes to
>->> technology. 
>->> 
>->> On Servers :
>->> Firstly you have about 10 hard drives I can imagine all using differnt
>->> ammounts of space. Such as your apps data hard drive contains 50 gb's of
>->> "Stuff" and yet has 350 gigs or so left. Let's assume that is true on
>->> most of your hard drives. Well why not buy a Raid card and plug all your
>->> hard drives into there and then you would have a seamless terrabyte. 
>->> 
>->> Nextly you should have some form of GNU/Linux on your servers because at
>->> the current point they aren't to well jailed. The permissions would
>->> allow people to do currently malicious things even if you do have
>->> backups. Other reasons you should use linux on your server is because it
>->> is much more secure and adaptable. I believe you have NTFS partitions on
>->> your hard drives at the moment which means fragmentation now if you were
>->> to change to lets say EXT3 that would prevent fragmentation since it is
>->> a modern file system. 
>->> 
>->> Thirdly you have a soft web block. Meaning if I used a live cd of some
>->> Linux distrubution I could get around your web filter. I understand the
>->> need to block some sites since they do not pretain to School, however
>->> you might want to redirect all trafic through a thin server and have it
>->> close requests to certian sites. 
>->> 
>->> A huge addition that comes with linux is user managment. Currently you
>->> seem to have to make new users every few years and clear out the
>->> directorys. Well I'm sure that is a pain. With linux and it's stabilty
>->> ( some servers have been up for years with out a single crash, example
>->> being nasa mars rovers ) you could keep the current users and restrict
>->> the Directory access to X ammount of space on the data drive meaning
>->> less work to clean it out. 
>->> 
>->> MONEY : Linux saves money. It's as simple as that. Here are a few
>->> reasons why ; It's open source meaning you or anyone could freely
>->> recieve the source code and modify it to your needs and the community is
>->> constantly making updates. Look at KDE and you will see how fast and
>->> steady their updates are. Also stabilty and hastle; Yes linux will take
>->> time to setup, but even in the short run it is easier, no need for
>->> calling support since the Linux community support is amazing. There are
>->> many means of contcting the developers of programs.
>->> 
>->> On the desktop : 
>->> These machines in our school are fine, sure the ram is a bit low at 256
>->> mb but linux doesnt care, you could run Gnome on these machines
>->> wonderfuly. Open source software has free updates, Look at open-office a
>->> well far along office application and compared to our current version of
>->> Microsoft Office it is a big update.
>->> 
>->> It's a bit harder to explain the desktop, it's something you need to try
>->> your self. You could find an easy linux distrobution at www.ubuntu.org
>->> 
>->> _______________________________________________
>->> linux-user mailing list
>->> linux-user at egr.msu.edu
>->> http://mailman.egr.msu.edu/mailman/listinfo/linux-user
>->> 

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