Re: While of on the subject of ideas for programs.

[Malonowa <malonowa@wanadoo.fr>]

Rob Bellville wrote:

> At 04:29 7/4/99 +0200, you wrote:
> >BANNER PROGRAM
> <<SNIP>>
> >CARDS 'N' CALENDERS
> <<SNIP>>
> ETC...
>

:-)

> As a system administrator for a public school, here is what I feel my
> school can use. It is a little askew of simply Linux programs. I am
> fortunate to have a number of 386 and 486 donated machines sitting and
> waiting for this idea to become reality. Pardon me if I speak as a
> demanding customer for a minute. <grin>
>

How old are the pupils?

> I need to take my low end machines and make them do something useful. No
> one likes to use DOS or DOS word processors in my school. The staff is busy
> trying to educate kids, not learn the old ways of technology. We've
> introduced them to Win95 years ago after we took their Macs away and now
> that is what they expect to see.
>

I think a lot of people do this. It's a shame about the Macs though -
apparently you can match them to your carpet and curtains more easily these
days - which is more than can be said for Windoze machines.

If you've got old macs lying around I think you can run Linux on those too.

> What I would LOVE to see is a CD-ROM and a boot floppy that installs a
> small Linux distribution with 6-8 useful programs (~100 MB) that can be run
> in small RAM footprint 16 color VGA XWindows session.

I don't know of a distribution that fits in 100MB - but there may be one - can
anyone recommend anything here. Alternatively, sometimes you can pick up old
hard discs from computer fairs quite cheap that may have larger capacities.

Correct me if I'm wrong anyone but if disc space's a problem couldn't one
machine work as an x server and the others as clients without hard disks? Then
you could put a few of the disks in one machine and install everything there.
Is this a practical suggestion anyone? You may need a faster machine to act as
the server though.

> At the low end, I
> don't need to network them (that can come later in version 2 ;), just print
> to one of my many dot matrix printers in generic text mode. When my
> students boot the machine up, they are prompted for a username and
> password.

xdm will do this.

> They are then lead to a screen with 6-8 boxes that they can click
> on to start a particular program (similar to At Ease).

There's a program launcher on the list - could probably knock this out in TCL
pretty quickly.

> When they quit the
> program the "At Ease" screen reappears. Oh yeah, a logout/shutdown button
> is needed, too.
>
> Of course, the CD-ROMs would be arranged into groups so the programs
> correspond to particular age groups/grades. When a machine gets messed up
> somehow, the distribution and applications on the CD-ROM can be reinstalled
> without losing the user data/scores.

How would the machine get messed up? It's a secure system.

> Anyone should be able to re-install
> from the CD-ROM. An option for "dummy" mode that could pick up the original
> configuration from the HD or floppy would guarantee that the software would
> be re-installed properly. A teacher module is also necessary for setting up
> student accounts.
>

There is a one on the project pages but more localized configuration is on my
hit list for the autumn. I'm talking with some guys in France about this to
develop some kind of standard libraries to deal with this. I think the admin.
tool on the project page could probably hook into our libraries. Stick around -
your opinions will be important to our work - you're the sort of person that
would help us with get it right.

> Is this too much to ask for? Most of the programs we currently use are
> fairly simple. Most of them are drill and practice and my students prefer
> to do this on a computer that can flash "congratulations!" on the screen
> once in a while than to do it on paper. If they are a little bit more fun
> and equally educational than the "old fashioned" methods, then they'll be
> considered a success.
>
> Help me put these older machines into useful service and I'd be glad to pay
> a small fee so that more development could be done.
>

When it comes to Linux I think most people will help you for free. We're a nice
bunch.

> <end customer rant>
>
> I use Linux extensively on the server side. But, I am not a
> software/programmer person. My expertise is in hardware and networking. I
> am also a one man MIS department in a school with over 300 computers and
> 15+ servers (read: insanely busy!). Make it simple for anyone to install
> this "perfect product" and I will sing its virtues to all who will listen.
> If you put a slick splash screen on it during startup you can propagandize
> Linux to the hilt.

I think people would like to keep hearing about how things go with putting a
few linux machines in your school. I for one will be fascinated to see how the
staff react - any problems with the authorities there, integration problems
with your existing system. What the overall reactions are for example, would
people consider switching to Linux etc. etc. I think your establishment makes
for a good little microcosm that would be interesting to study.

I sincerely hope that you keep in touch here.

Roman.