Hi Terry As a school principal and Linux fan I am going to suggest an intermediate step that will not be popular with the list, but is practical for schools.
Look at planning any change over you make. Any change in operating system has huge implications for a school. Remember all the time it has taken to get staff on board with your present operating system. They will all now have favourite programmes and procedures they have developed, I will also guarantee there will be some M$ only programmes as well, e.g. in our school we use the MUSAC suite of programmes. Don't despair however. Consider setting up as a first step a linux based server that runs samba. Samba, once configured, will allow the M$ machines to be fooled into thinking they are logging onto a NT server. There are a number of inexpensive commercially available solutions. Our school and about another 190 others through the country use the Smart-net solution. Contact me off list if you would like more information. Our server provided mail service, web service and file service, as well as being firewalled. The recent worm problem had no effect on our system or the M$ based machines on it. The only problem other schools had was when laptops were taken home, infected their by connected through dial-up modems and then being brought back to school and logged into the school system. The only change we have had to make is we now use Pegasus Mail on our M$ machines, we could equally use one the web based mail programme that is installed on the server. Once you have this type of system up and running then you can start to look at bringing more Linux onto the desk tops. Our school has quite a few older Pentium 133 - 166 machines. They are useless for M$ now. We are looking at a terminal server option. A US based group K12Linux Terminal Server Project, provide a free out of the box terminal server, based on Red Hat 9, that is stable, functional and easy to setup and use. Another alternative is to have some dual boot machines that can log in to the terminal server under linux, or as linux machines into the main server, or as M$ machines onto the main server. I know that what I am suggesting may not find favour with the true blue linux fan, but I am also pragmatic enough to know that making change in an organisation often means making small steps and even being a bit subversive about how you do it. Hope this helps Feel free to contact me. Keith & Chris Turner 167 Innes Rd St Albans Christchurch 8005 New Zealand ph 64-3-355-8908 email [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: Terry Cole [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, August 22, 2003 7:47 AM To: Wlug Cc: Linux-Users Cant Subject: Linux in schools Folks, With all the MS problems/virus as well as Exchange problems I have been having, I am keen to try a Linux option at our high school. I have RH 9 Web server that performs great, no downtime. I have spoken with our board chair who is also on my side. For workstations and server what OS and Apps should I use? We need 'Office', 'Corel', 'Internet', 'E-mail', 'Publisher'. I want to put a small network together to show the staff. Any suggestions would be great. Cheers Terry Cole Rotorua, New Zealand mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.cole.gen.nz http://www.websnz.com --- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.509 / Virus Database: 306 - Release Date: 12/08/03 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.509 / Virus Database: 306 - Release Date: 12/08/03
