Results tagged “hardware”

Hardware recycling in Richmond took a leap forward last weekend. A small group of Richmond volunteers toured Free Geek Columbus. We learned much from visit. One valuable detail I’ll focus on today is that they run their organization on web-based, database-driven software system called “fgdb.rb”. The software is available on their intranet, allowing several volunteers to use and access the system at the same time.

fgdb.rb tracks hardware donations, volunteer time, recycling trips, and hardware distribution. fgdb.rb work with a neat tool called “printme” that takes an automatic snapshot of the all of computer system’s details, and uploads it to the database. This automates tedious data entry and creates a great reference.

I was pleased to find that “fgdb.rb” was available for free as open source software, and is designed to runon Linux. However, the documentation was lacking on details on how to get the system up and running on Ubuntu Hardy Linux, which is what we use on our server at our hardware co-op, and also on my laptop.

Free Geek Portland developed fgdb.rb for their own use and had tested installing the software primarily on Debian Lenny Linux. Now I have managed to install it on Ubuntu Hardy Linux, and have submitted a patch back to the authors to update the documentation to help others do this as well. You can see my current version of the installation instructions, but my changes should be merged into the main fgdb.rb git repository soon, and I recommend checking there for the current version.

I’ve also published a few photos from the Free Geek Columbus field trip.

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.