View the EDTECH Discussion Logs by month
View the Prior Message in EDTECH's June 1999 logs by: [date] [author] [thread] View the Next Message in EDTECH's June 1999 logs by: [date] [author] [thread] Visit the EDTECH home page.
> Anyone out there using linux as part of their teaching? If so, how ? > What are the pros and cons ? Are there any networks that are fully > linux based ? I use Linux boxes in a variety of ways. First, Linux is our school district's server platform. I used to run some NT machines, but abandoned NT Server because of its lack of speed, hardware requirements, security problems, and overall instability. Our Linux boxes provide a vast array of services to Linux and Windows9x client machines. Linux is our Internet firewall, our domain name server, Internet object cache/proxy server, filtering system, web server, ftp and telnet server, file and printer server, web-based calendar/scheduling, and of course our mail server (web-based E-Mail in addition to POP3 and IMAP mail). I'm sure there's much more it does which I can't remember off the top of my head. In this server role, Linux is unquestionably superior -- it runs on "ancient" hardware that NT would be unusable on, and is fast, secure and infinitely flexible. Visit <http://www.colebrook.k12.nh.us> to see what Linux can look like from a web view, but of course that's silly since Linux-based Apache web servers are the single most popular platform for a web server on the entire Internet. In my view, there is *no reason* for schools to use NT server. Linux does the job more efficiently with fewer resources. The only reason I can think of using NT for is because someone *likes* viruses, security problems, and wasting money. :-) I also use Linux in some "dedicated" roles for classroom use. Right now that's limited to computers that are office suite platforms and web browsers. Since we run StarOffice as our office suite, if a computer is used just for office suite functions I've found my support headaches are almost nil if I make that computer Linux-based. Ditto for computers whose use is as a web browser. The pros of Linux are many: no licensing headaches, no software cost, vastly reduced support costs, lightning speed, religious adherence to standard protocols, scalability, stellar stability, superior security, and all on a platform which basically eliminates other software costs -- for example, you don't have to purchase a virus scanner or kludgey desktop security package for Linux boxes, they're simply unneeded. The cons are in two areas. First, Linux is Unix and it requires Unix knowledge to support it. At the desktop Linux is as easy to use as Win9x or a Mac so that's not a problem, but it requires support people who know something about Unix and computers. The second con is that the educational software selection for Linux is small to non-existent. Though with Mexico installing Linux boxes in tens of thousands of schools and other international efforts to use Linux in educational settings, combined with projects like the U.S. "Simple End-User Linux" (SEUL) Educational Project to create educational and school administrative software for Linux, this weakness will soon lessen or evaporate, but it's still a major weakness presently. This is the reason why I limit desktop Linux use to web browsing and regular office suite tasks. Feel free to fire away with specific questions... -- . | Windows: buggy, bloated, slow, multiple reboots Randy | (redwards@golgotha.net) | You can't live with Windows, but you CAN live http://www.golgotha.net | without it! http://www.golgotha.net/why-linux/ EDTECH has changed addresses. The new list address is EDTECH@H-NET.MSU.EDU. All subscription commands should be sent to LISTSERV@H-NET.MSU.EDU.
|