Comments on: Linux in Schools

By: jim

jim — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 05:05:25 +0000

In answer to Sitara, I switched my school from WinXP to Linux mainly for the cost savings but also because the machines could not handle Win7 or above and with no money to replace the hardware or the software. I have received many thanks from the students and much panic from the staff. The main reason that I found was that the staff was so engrained in the MS and other highly marketed packages the teachers were not willing to look at anything else. The staff has spent so many years teaching the tools and not so much on the the more important concepts. The students see whatever is provided as a tool and learn to use alternatives fairly quickly. I am also finding that if there is more than a single option provided, the students will decide what works best.

The only 2 packages I have not been able to replace (until recently) was the district Student Information System (SIS) and the meal transaction system. I found that both of these were originally designed in the late 1990’s and they are still based off of that core. We recently decided to move to the cloud version of the SIS and I will try more to replace the meal system next year. One left!

There are very few software packages that cannot be replaced with OSS ones, there are some though. The main question becomes one that you need to ask of yourself, are you teaching the concept or are you teaching the tool?

By: John Kim

John Kim — Tue, 29 May 2012 07:21:43 +0000

Fantastic post. I’m actually trying to convert a high school in Los Angeles into Ubuntu because Windows XP just feels so obsolete. Through Linux, students open new doors to exciting career.

Money, skeptics say, is the least of issues for a school running Linux. It’s a matter of compatibility of administrative services and appeal to the Linux-ignorant mass.

I’ve been blogging about this project. Please check: epikvision.blogspot.com

By: Gabriel Forster

Gabriel Forster — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 14:51:06 +0000

What a great perspective. We have implemented linux in our school from a standpoint of financial responsibility. But it really opens the doors for so many more opportunities than anything else out there. You can read about our switch to linux here.

By: sitara

sitara — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 08:48:30 +0000

I would just like to know how schools adapting this OS handle usage of specialized software that does not support Linux. I am have a difficult time understanding usage of this OS when many of the things that I need my students to be able to use are not supported on this system. I am not an IT individual but rather a teacher and am coming across limitations with this OS regarding software that I need for my students. I would like to find out how things like this are handled.

By: darkduck

darkduck — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 17:38:51 +0000

Russia plans to implement Linux in schools for ages. But project always fails.

Though, there are some decent Russian Linuxes. I wrote about some in my blog (http://linuxblog.darkduck.com)

By: perspectoff

perspectoff — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 17:15:34 +0000

SkoleLinux from Norway has a nice pathway that includes LTSP (multi-monitor management) and a lot of structure that is useful for schools.

Mint is pretty but not radically different from (K)Ubuntu.

By: Xavier Sythe

Xavier Sythe — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 12:56:02 +0000

@DGoodin Mint is worth it. It’s so much better than Ubuntu.

By: HF

HF — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:26:49 +0000

Greg, great article. Just wanted to let you knwo that the link to “How Weta Digital Handled Avatar” is broken. I think this is the right one…
http://www.studiodaily.com/filmandvideo/currentissue/How-Weta-Digital-Handled-Avatar_11701.html

Cheers

By: Shannon VanWagner

Shannon VanWagner — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 17:12:03 +0000

If you like this article, you should also checkout Dan Kegel’s paper entitled “The Case for Linux in Universities” located at: http://www.kegel.com/linux/edu/case.html

Cheers!
Humans Enabled – that’s what Technology is for!

By: DuWayne

DuWayne — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 23:48:18 +0000

Scott –

Yes you can. While I have never tried to transfer a license code for someone to use on a fresh install (which I am told doesn’t work unless you deactivate windows from that “computer”), all the license info is on the drive and goes with the drive. If you have something like an HP, which has HP recovery tools it might be a problem, but even then I don’t see why. It’s only software and should work just as well on another machine (like WD’s HDD cloning software works for other drives). Indeed I rather like HP’s recovery softeware, because you can create a boot recovery disc that doesn’t contain all the bloatware, instead containing what you actually had.

Of course with Linux that just isn’t an issue.

I actually just gave a friend of mine my OS drive out of my desktop with XP on. I also cloned my laptop HDD before I installed Ubuntu, for another friend who just built a super-badass gaming rig. He uses Linux for most everything, but apparently the games just don’t make it in Linux, even with a super-badass box. Both transfers went quite smoothly – though for the XP changeover, we needed to filter the contents of the old drive through my Ubuntu netbook.

Windows got mucked up on his desktop and claimed he needed to register Windows – mind you he has been using this rig for years now and never had a problem, nor had the person who owned it before him. When I went to transfer files off his old drive onto the one I gave him, it wouldn’t let him open his files – even his documents and shit. So we opened them on my netbook, transfered them to an external drive and then from that, onto the “new” drive. The amusing thing is that all the documents and media files will go right back onto that drive, because after formatting it will be mounted as storage.

He is seriously considering Ubuntu.