Results tagged “Open Source”

Richmond High School student Jonathan Ulrich helped to set up and test a thin client lab.

This is an open letter to the Richmond, Indiana Community School system. There is a school board meeting coming up to discuss how to fund technology upgrades with a dwindling budget. I strongly suggest the school system consider Linux thin client labs as part of the solution. Thin client labs are made with low-cost, low-power, low-maintenance stations and have many advantages.

A Linux thin client lab is already being used successfully in the area. Four years ago in Brookville, Indiana a thirty-seat thin client lab was set up at St. Michael’s School. Initial costs were kept low through low hardware requirements and the use of free, open source software. The lab is still in use four years later. Minimal maintenance has been required, including zero virus/spyware/malware infections due to the use of Linux.

Thin clients don’t need a hard drive, which are at the top of the list of the common parts to fail in a computer. Instead, every workstation pulls all the software it needs from a single server, meaning there is a one computer to maintain software on in the lab, not thirty. So St. Michael’s unplugged the hard drives in their machines, cutting down on noise in the lab, and well as reducing the energy consumed by the lab.

I recommend checking for yourself on this success story. For the administrator perspective, contact the Principal, Ken Saxon at (765) 647-4961. For the IT perspective, contact Mike Heins, who set up the system and maintains it: (765) 328 4479, (also at mikeh@perusion.net).

The use of Linux in Indiana schools is not new, either. In 2005 the state of Indiana launched a state-wide initiative to put Linux on the the desktop of 300,000 Indiana high school students. Locally, Northeastern High School has made significant use of Linux.

I’ve already hinted that thin clients have lower power requirements and can be lower maintenance. The hardware needed for thin client workstations is not special. In fact, old desktop hardware that would otherwise be discarded for being slow is ideal. In a thin client system, the performance is determined by the server, and the workstation needs just a minimal amount of resources to connect to it.

With these principles, I built a four-seat demonstration lab at my church, using three computers so old that a local computer store gave them to me. I paid only $50 for a memory upgrade for the server. As a thin client lab, these old computers came back to life and performed like modern desktops, although they ran Windows 98 in their former lives.

Because a school lab setting is ideal place to deploy a thin client network, there are several projects that focus on exactly this, and give away the required software. These include K12Linux and Edubuntu. Both are exceptionally easy to try out and install, from personal experience.

Pursuing thin client now is a strategic move that works towards the goal of the City’s Comprehensive Plan to be a “Sustainable City”. The plan is fiscally conservative and technologically advanced, with low impact on the environment and energy bills.

Many of the key organizations I deal with in my daily life now run Linux on the desktop. First, let’s taken as given that I run it home and work and my wife runs it, too. Many other organizations in Richmond, Indiana have switched over to Linux on the desktop as well:

• My church has three computers, one for the pastor, one for the office manager and one for the hardware recycling program. They all independently chose to run Linux. It’s a popular choice in the congregation as well, as with more than a dozen systems in use by members ranging from 4 years old past 64 years old.
• My doctor, Kurt Ritchie, runs his business exclusively on Linux
• My lawyer, Thomas Kemp, runs his law practice primary on a Linux-based groupware solution now, and travels with a Linux laptop
• My grocery store, The Clear Creek Coop, runs exclusively Linux on the desktop. They bought a Dell laptop with Ubuntu pre-installed.
• My bike shop, Ike’s Bikes, now runs exclusively Linux on the desktop.
• A local high school, North Eastern, runs primary Linux on the desktop, as part of trend of over 20,000 Indiana students running Linux.
• A local college, Earlham, features Linux labs
• Local graduate schools, Earlham School of Religion and Bethany Seminary, also use and promote Linux on the desktop
• A local computer store, System Solutions, has had a stack of Linux install disks to give out, and pledges interest to support Linux more in the future, citing frustrations with Windows Vista and Windows malware problems in general.

Those are the commercial desktop Linux desktop uses I can think of off the top of my head. Among home users, I’ve found that a number of people are installing Linux themselves now, from farmers to bloggers.

Microsoft may still have majority share on the desktop here, but in my world they are losing ground fast to the benefits of open source software.

Who has switched in your world?

For the last six or so years, I've been directly participating in the open source software movement. I maintain the popular Data::FormValidator perl module. I regularly participate in several other projects through mailing lists, bug reports and direct feedback.

I have found the open source software community to be a functional democracy. By this I mean that the leaders tend to be fair, responsive and accountable. Many users participate with feedback and make a direct difference in the code, the fundamental rule set of software culture.

As an observer and participant, open source culture is inspiring. It provides a living model for how large and small groups of people can collaborate effectively.