Khaotic Musings
Random musings on Linux and Free and Open Source Software.
Thursday 12 February 2009, 4:58 AM
Deploying education desktops - made easier
I was therefore interested to hear about another project, with similar aims, being run by one of my colleagues here at work. While his team's efforts aren't education-industry specific, they are very applicable within that context.
Briefly, here's what they've built: Imagine a live Linux USB key, which, upon bootup on a PC or laptop, pops up a menu offering a range of distributions to install. One of these is Edubuntu, the education-oriented version of the popular Linux distro. The user selects the required distro, and then walks off, perhaps with another USB key, to the next PC or laptop, and so on, around the whole school computer lab.
The installer will proceed to do a complete install, including all those apps that an average desktop Linux user wants, but which aren't installed by default, codecs, plugins, mplayer, educational software, etc. It fetches the latest package updates, and can even email a hashed version of the newly-created system password, in a secure way, to a designated address, say the school IT manager's. It also sets the OpenOffice.org default Save As documents to be DOC, XLS, and PPT, to make integration into a school's Windows network 'community reality', easier.
Using this USB installer system, a non-techie teacher can build a complete education-oriented desktop, on a PC, laptop or netbook, with about 2 minutes of actual effort, and only one decision (ie, what distro to install).
With a handful of such keys, a lab of 15 PCs can be built in about 2 hours. All this, with no requirement for any technical expertise.
As 2GB USB keys, the storage space needed to support this installer, are only a few dollars apiece now, this solution scales without much expense.
Yes, none of this technology is rocket-science, but that's the point. Linux and open source software make it feasible for even small, minimally resourced groups to build solutions which benefit users and communities, particularly communities which don't have substantial funding, like schools.
PreviousComments on this post
sounds ideal, but for one thing - most school admin do not want to learn a new system. all the schools i've worked in, the admin nearly peed themselves laughing when i mentioned linux, even with the cost advantages.
still, i want to know more, because one day...
Hi azonei.
You're quire right in stating "most school admin do not want to learn a new system."
What's true is that there are an increasing number of schools which are using Linux, so the solution discussed above is really aimed at making their lives easier.
What's probably equally true, is that both Windows Vista and Windows 7 *are* 'a new system', and school IT staff will need to learn these, much as they would need to learn a Linux desktop solution. What we're aiming for is making their introduction to deploying Linux desktops as easy and painless as possible.
I am an IT Manager in a school looking to supply alternatives to our students. I thought I would start out simple and set up a Linux lab and integrate this with our existing MS infrastructure. I Love Linux but I have simply failed to create an enviroment worth migrating to. It seems to me that too much developer time is spent on developing different distros and desktop environments. More time should be spent on creating seemless integration with existing networks. Yes, I know Microsoft aren't playing fair. Linux and Windows will need to coexist if Linux is ever to break out of the home and into the business world. Yes, I know that government departments all over the world have jumped ship to Linux but they usually employ a team of Linux gurus and these gurus rejig the code to work. I have found lots of links on the web saying that schools have switched to Linux but on further investigation I find Ubuntu in small standalone pods or Linux distros that perform kisok functions such as web browsers or RDP clients.
Is any one doing it successfully and can you share your knowledge?
devlin7,
I'd love to know where you found hiccups or roadblocks. I've been involved in a few deployments of Linux to 'mere mortals' and have generally been able to find solutions or at least workarounds to any issues encountered.
Can you enumerate over the issues you've found?
This comment has been deleted at the users request
Yes, this is a common issue with people who have come in from a Windows environment, where the group policy method of locking down apps and desktops is well understood.
You can achieve the same results under Linux, but as usual, there are a variety of paths to doing this. This has its plusses and minusses.
To get an idea of what's possible, read up on KDE Kiosk mode:
http://developer.kde.org/documentation/tutorials/kiosk/index.html
"One of the more powerful aspects of the KDE desktop is the ability to customize the user experience completely. Most KDE programs use core features and plugins provided by the desktop system, creating a consistent user interface and easy-to-access configuration setup. One popular extension to this interface, known as KDE's Kiosk Mode, allows a system administrator to configure all aspects of the desktop for an end user and optionally prevent the end user from making modifications to the provided setup."
There is no issue authenticating against a Windows domain but there is little control over the workstation. With Windows you can control most aspects of the users environment before the user logs on. I work in a school and we dynamically create the users desktops and startmenus at logon. We allocate printers in the same fashion. One logon controls access to all network items.
I guess what I am looking for is control of the desktop.
Forgot to mention.
As you may know, in Linux, a user's 'config' is stored in their '/home/' directory, generally in hidden '.dotfiles'. You can lock many changes down by making these files unwritable. A few quick scripts, which iterate through all your users' home directories, can block-off many unwanted user changes.
Something else you might want to investigate/ Ubuntu 8.10 onwards has the ability to run a desktop in 'Guest' mode, which is fairly functional, but restricted and 'safe'. This technology may be useful for students too.
devlin7,
Sorry, yet another followup post.
You mentioned that you would like to restrict which printers your students can print to from these Linux desktops. Assuming you will be using CUPS, this is very feasible to set up.
You can tell CUPS to only accept print-jobs for printing on certain printers, from certain PCs/laptops from IP address ranges (say, the library PCs or the staff laptops), but to reject print requests from the student labs.
Thanksfor allthe feedback.Linux from a desktop perspect doesall that I require.I findthethought of maintaining 400 Linux desktops very scary indeed. I prefer Gnome to KDE, hell I prefer XFCE, enlightenment and pratically everything else to KDE. KDE is bloated with stupid little apps that nobody in their right mind would bother using [this ismy humble opinion]. Look I started out on mainframes and slowly progressed into Microsoft against my will over many years. Apart from Vista,Millenium, and a variety of other MS apps,they have got lot of things right.I see so much potential in Linux but like MS Vista Linux is heading for all the useless bells and whistles that waste CPU power. Compiz is really amazing but who actually needs it?
I know what I want to do is possible but just out of my technological reach at present.
devlin7,
it all depends on what you're after, and how much it costs you:
- If you get the Microsoft products for little or no cost,
- if you find that they deliver a stable and secure platform,
- if you find that you don't suffer from DLL hell and bit-rot,
- if you can get many of your educational apps for little or no cost,
then I can't argue with using them.
Here's something that my be of use to you, regardless of the platform you're running:
Open Source Victoria Education FOSS Catalog
Free Software for Schools is a catalogue of open source computer programs for teaching and learning.
The catalog is organised by the following categories, and contains an index that lists the name of each program listed.
Office Productivity Applications
Graphics
Publishing
Multimedia
Scientific Applications
Mathematical Applications
Human Languages
Computer Programming
Educational Games
Computer Infrastructure for Schools
Information System Solutions
Primary School Children
http://www.cc.com.au/files/Free-Software-for-Schools.pdf [10.8mb]
This comment has been deleted at the users request
Thanks for the feedback and link. At present we are given heavily subsudised Microsoft deals and yes you are right in that we have no reason to change. I can see however that the MS deals will cease as early as next year when the 3 year Ministry contract expires. This is why we are exploring our options now. The problem is that if the Minsitry no longer do a deal with MS our school would need to fully fund MS on 450+ workstations and that will never happen.
We use a lot of Open Source software already. I keep telling the teachers to use open source but they opt for MS and Adobe products because that is what is being used commercially and I keep saying "not for much longer".
Does networking and user control get easy if we simply run Linux servers and take MS out of the picture completely? I have only found one school in NZ that is running totally Linux. They are running SUSE and have quite a lot of commercial support in behind them.
Maybe the migration to Linux is easier if you don't have an MS background?
This comment has been deleted at the users request
Hi devlin7.
You wrote:
"Thanks for the feedback and link. At present we are given heavily subsudised Microsoft deals and yes you are right in that we have no reason to change. I can see however that the MS deals will cease as early as next year when the 3 year Ministry contract expires. This is why we are exploring our options now. The problem is that if the Minsitry no longer do a deal with MS our school would need to fully fund MS on 450+ workstations and that will never happen."
I can understand your predicament.
One of the advantages, I've often suggested to business people, that Linux and FOSS brings to the table, is avoidance of lock-in. It's trivial to move from one Linux distro to another and almost trivial to move from desktop Linux to Windows (or Mac), as many of the open source apps written for Linux are also available for these other platforms. The open source community is ecumenical. We support all-comers ;-)
You also say:
"We use a lot of Open Source software already. I keep telling the teachers to use open source but they opt for MS and Adobe products because that is what is being used commercially and I keep saying "not for much longer"."
In the end, you will need to get them used to alternative software, as an 'escape clause' safe-guard. There are ways to do this.
You also write:
"Does networking and user control get easy if we simply run Linux servers and take MS out of the picture completely? I have only found one school in NZ that is running totally Linux. They are running SUSE and have quite a lot of commercial support in behind them."
Yes, in general, yes, it *is* easier to run a Linux environment when it doesn't have to interact with proprietary protocols and data formats, ala Active Directory and DOC files.
Also, as with anything, if you haven't developed expertise in a technology, you *may* have to seek external support. Which is why it's important to develop that expertise ASAP.
Finally, you say:
"Maybe the migration to Linux is easier if you don't have an MS background?"
Indeed, any 'migration' is easier if you are a 'greenfields' site ;-)
It's migrating from what you have that makes it difficult. If you're starting from scratch, it might even be the case that a Linux lab would be easier/quicker to establish than a Windows lab.
