Craig wrote: > Hello everyone, > > I have been an Ubuntu user for not very long (since around October) and > have been amazed at the stability, compatibility and usability amongst > many other things. I think it really shows what a community can do if > they pull together - they can develop an operating system that (in my > biased opinion) is better than that of a multi-billion pound company. > I am 13 and go to Court Moor School in Hampshire. The school is very > keen on getting the latest technology - virtual learning environments, > computerised registration etc. Currently I am persuading various people > around the school to switch to ubuntu. I have found quite a few people > who would be interested in having someone who really knows what they're > talking about to show them some of the features and the security they > could use and some of the things included in edubuntu. > Obviously this is still in early stages, I was just wondering if this > is something that anyone would possibly be interested in doing so I > could negotiate further. Otherwise, any ideas on ways to persuade a > school to switch to ubuntu? > > Craig. > >
Hi Craig, Being in Devon I'm a bit far away to do a talk, I'm sure there are some users closer, you may also want to try your local Linux User Group (if I'm right you should find their website at www.hantslug.org.uk). One of the plus points about Ubuntu and Linux is that it can increase the shelf life of older hardware by quite a lot. Many recent (say 2 to 3 year old or even older machines) which run XP fine will probably struggle with Vista (and even new machines like Dell's £179 Vostro Laptop with Vista Basic pre-installed struggle too!) but Ubuntu will most probably run fine. For instance, my kids PC is an old Athlon XP 1900+ with 256MB ram. It's a little bit slow compared to my quad core Phenom, but it runs Ubuntu perfectly well (although I want to put a bit more memory in it). I don't think it would run XP all that well. If the school have even older machines for instance Pentium, Pentium 2, K6/2 or early Pentium 3 machines, they could be re-used with LTSP. Basically LTSP turns an older machine into a network booting client machine which connects to a higher spec server which actually runs the applications. LTSP is built into the Edubuntu Server, and I believe it's also a package for Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu. I've successfully built a small LTSP network with a lowish spec machine as a server with a couple of old K6/2 450 machines as clients. Despite the clients not having a fast CPU and hardly any memory (64MB) they work well as they just display the screen, play sound and take input from the keyboard and mouse. So the school could possibly setup a whole computer suite of say 16 or 32 machines of an old spec running off one or two more recent machines as a server. Chances are they'd already have the majority of the kit they need. Other things you might want to look at are Karoshi which is a complete school network system in a box (well in a distribution) which is based on PCLinuxOS. It can consist of either one or more servers which provide file sharing, web caching and content filtering, a virtual learning environment and I think even LTSP too. It's tailored for schools and it's easy to setup with support available either for free or at a cost (free support consists of speaking to people on a mailing list, but if you can find a band of merry geeks to help then that would probably save a bit of money). The final thing I can think of is Moodle (which is included with Karoshi) which is a complete Virtual Learning Environment. It's free and runs on Ubuntu and most other flavours of Linux. I've had a bit of a play with it but not being an expert I'm not sure how well it would fit a schools needs, but as far as I know it is used in schools in this country and around the world. I've built a test Moodle server for a friend's wife who is being put in charge of IT at a primary school and she seems to think it would do the job. If you need any more help, feel free to drop me an e-mail either on the Ubuntu list or off list. Good luck. Rob -- [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
