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

[Rob Bellville <rob@acol.com>]

At 01:55 7/5/99 +0200, you wrote:
>
>
>Rob Bellville wrote:

>> 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?

Kindergarten thru 12 grade - 4 yrs to 18 yrs - in three school. I manage
them all!

>
>> 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.

Since I've moved the Macs out my headaches have gone down tremendously. I
used to spend about 80% of my time troubleshooting systems now its down to
about 15% with Windows machines. I was very good at getting the Macs more
stable by slimming down the system. My methods are being used by a few
local area schools with good results. Before my system slimming (like using
the "easy install") things were much worse and they ran like wet dogs. Even
the die-hard Mac nuts in our school have seen the light now that they are
using PCs. Anyways, that fuel for a different fire. <grin>

One of my main objectives is to not run Linux for Linux-sake. It is my
responsibility to supply stable, easy to use computer services to my users
(staff, students, and administrators). They rely on me to sift thru the
technobabble and deliver educational and office solutions that work. If
Linux is the way, then Linux it will be. Currently it is not. Being a Linux
aficionado, I'd like to change that. <grin>



>
>> 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.

One of the criteria is to not spend our anemic budget on these older
machines. They all have ~150 MB drives now. Granted HDs are cheap but
buying 30 of them won't fly at the moment. I am limited and can't throw our
limited funds toward the older stuff at the moment. Besides, some schools
can't afford to spend money on additional parts and are lucky to even get
the donations. Not all schools and their budget-deciding school committees
have jumped on the technology band wagon.


>
>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.

Not if I'm considering stand alone machines. Many of the special ed rooms
are not networked yet. This is where there would be the biggest demand.
Also, not all schools have a network infrastructure in place. My school is
small (1850 students) and we are VERY fortunate to have a decent LAN/WAN
setup. Many nearby schools are still in the dark ages and will be for a few
more years to come. 



>> 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.

Ah, you've never worked in a school, huh? <grin> I've got a VERY technology
literate student body that can find holes. But realistically, things do
happen, for example, the teacher *may* have enough privileges to mess up
the file system. Power outages may screw up things (happened to me last
week during a brownout.) Anyway, having this capability should be one of
the easier things to do, IMHO.

>> 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.

True but if a small contribution toward expenses and pizza can help, I'd be
willing.

>
>> <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 guess a main point of all this is that the staff and students shouldn't
need to know they are running Linux. They should just see a set of
applications available on the screen and be able to go to it. Personally, I
am really excited about the way Linux is heading but the average user could
care less. I understand this and it is up to me to make sure they don't
need to know anything about it. I have been very successful making our
systems idiot proof over the years and the ones who want to know more
simply ask me. 

The first step to educating my users is to make them feel comfortable with
computers. How do you do this? Make the computers work for the users (not
visa versa) and help them to get their work done. Once they find that
computers help them in their day-to-day activities, they nearly always tend
to ask more questions. Pretty soon you've upped their technical literacy
quite a bit.

Again, as I mentioned, software development is not my forte. I'm not alone
in this I'm sure. But I would be willing to test anything that I can
install with relative ease.

Rob Bellville
Millbury Public Schools
Millbury, MA

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 Rob Bellville                              PO Box 515
 rob@acol.com                       Millbury, MA 01527
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