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The purpose of the Room 008 Linux Project is to: ·Learn to use modern
software tools to help further education and support the curriculum
What is Linux? Linux, also known as GNU/Linux, is a free, powerful, UNIX-like operating system, developed originally for home PCs, but which now runs on a variety of platforms including PowerPC, Macintosh, Amiga, Atari, DEC Alpha, Sun Sparc, ARM, and many others. With millions of users worldwide, Linux is probably the most popular UNIX-like operating system in the world. Linux has long been praised for its stability--Linux boxes are known for running months or even years at a time without crashing, freezing, or having to be rebooted. Linux machines are also known to be extremely fast, because the operating system is very efficient at managing resources such as memory, CPU power, and disk space. More of the Web than one might expect is actually powered by old 486 boxes running Linux and the Apache Web Server, while NASA, Sandia, Fermilabs and others have built very powerful yet inexpensive supercomputers by creating clusters of Linux boxes running in parallel. Linux has been developed and refined by a worldwide community of programmers and other computer professionals connected by the Internet. The talent of this research and development community far exceeds the resources of any single commercial software company. The
K12 Linux Terminal Server Project All of the software is free! Not only the software to run the network, but Open Office is available too! Open Office contains a robust word processor, that reads and writes Microsoft Word files. Open Office Impress is included. Impress is presentation software that reads and writes Microsoft PowerPoint files. There is a powerful spreadsheet that any Microsoft Excel user will be right-at-home with. It reads and writes Excel files. Also present is a drawing component that creates 3D graphs and charts. It's all FREE!
Since we are bearing the entire cost of this technology, we need to keep costs down. This year, using Linux we will increase to a total of SIX workstations in our classroom. We will also be able to provide each student with a copy of Open Office that runs under Windows, to use at home (for free). Part of the allure of Linux, is that it will run on computers that Windows thinks of as obsolete. This keeps them out of landfills and helps us bridge the digital divide. The six workstations are: ·3 old Dell Optiplexes
(Pentium 166 MHz) that we were able to purchase refurbished from our
local computer store for $29 each! All of the "heavy lifting" is done on the server. It has a 13 Gig hard drive and all of the software and data resides there. Each student has their own folder on the server and can log in from any workstation, and access only their own data. They each have their own login name and password assigned by the teacher. To backup the student's work, we use a USB Zip Drive that connects to the server. Since the server is the heart of the network, it is the most powerful computer on the network. Most of our financial resources were directed at the server. To keep costs down and performance up, we elected to build the server ourselves. Most of the parts we found online at http://www.tigerdirect.com Our Server consists of: ·A FIC 33E ATX
motherboard - $59 Our server cost less than $250! - Memory prices have dropped lately, so we may increase to 1024Meg. We are running the server "headless" (without a monitor). We can access the server from a workstation. Our workstations cost less than $100 each. You cannot create a Windows workstation for that price! The most important factor for network performance is RAM. You need about 50Mb per user. I have not tested this, but by that formula we should be able to support 10 users with our current configuration. The motherboard in our server will support 1024Mb RAM, so theoretically we could support 20 workstations on our network. To increase the number of users, we would just have to add RAM and cheap workstations. Maybe we will have a bake sale to raise money for more workstations. In the future we may change to a more upscale motherboard and a faster processor. One of the big advantages of using Linux is that, now when people upgrade and donate their old equipment, we can actually use it! In a Windows based network, this equipment would be useless. Our workstations could not run Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000 or Windows XP! Since the software is free and doesn't require a license, Linux is an ideal cost-effective solution for schools. This type of network configuration has some advantages: *All of the programs
and data reside on the server. There is only one computer to maintain,
secure and backup. By switching to Linux, we are able to repurpose the 2 computers we used last year. These computers are 433 Mhz Celerons with 4 Gig hard drives. Perhaps they could become Linux servers for other classrooms. On Parent's Night, a parent offered to donate 2 old computers that they were not using. Our network may grow to eight workstations! With this Linux Network capability and our ability to recycle older computer equipment, we have to ask ourselves: "Are we making the best use of scarce technology resources with a Microsoft Windows or even a Mac solution?" "Is there a better way…?"
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