From: "adrian.wells"
There is also a wish to keep children in the same environment that they have at home - Teachers aren't known for delving into the unknown. - It makes sense, Office at home, office at school, office in the workplace.
It doesn't unless they have suitable software at home and Office is not suitable software for education (IMO). Lots of our pupils have PCs at home, used for games and a bit of basic word-processing. But they invariably use the RiscPCs at school for not only for all IT coursework (because that's the way we do it) but from choice for almost all the rest as well where there is any degree of complication.
What we need is an OS that is transparent, cheap, difficult to hack and easy to maintain, LINUX appears to be offering two or three out of four at the moment.
The biggest problem I foresee with Linux run locally is that when the bell goes, they save what theyre doing and switch off. The shutdown process is a bit of a bind. -- Martin Devon
On Thu, 10 Feb 2000, Martin Devon wrote:
The biggest problem I foresee with Linux run locally is that when the bell goes, they save what theyre doing and switch off. The shutdown process is a bit of a bind.
Don't let them switch off at all: if possible make it physically impossible. Just teach them to log in and out... -- Roger Whittaker SuSE Linux Ltd The Kinetic Centre Theobald Street Borehamwood Herts WD6 4PJ ---------------------- 020 8387 1482 ---------------------- roger@suse-linux.co.uk ----------------------
The biggest problem I foresee with Linux run locally is that when the bell goes, they save what theyre doing and switch off. The shutdown process is a bit of a bind.
No problem when they are diskless terminals, except that we have found that StarOffice and Netscape often leave rogue tasks running on the server. In the case of StarOffice a user cannot start a new one while an old one is running. Roger wrote:
I guess that others will be interested in the diskless X terminal stuff (and possibly details of how it was made to work).
and I wrote to him:
The X terminal stuff was fairly straightforward. A boot ROM in each machine causes it to load a kernel from the server, after which it operates as an independent Unix host but running only one application - an X server that connects to applications such as Netscape running on the server. Swap files for each client are held on the server's scratch directory.
The vmware implementation was much more complicated: luckily I had the help of an old boy from Cambridge who wrote a couple of necessary scripts (necessary for the multi-user aspect to operate automatically). But you really must try vmware (www.vmware.com).
and he wrote back saying could he post it to the list, so there it is. To be more accurate, the X terminal stuff was very difficult but done with ease by my guru: the multi-user vmware implementation was much more difficult and took him several weeks. I am convinced that diskless terminals getting all their applications and configuration from central servers are the key to a school system. Our BBCs were diskless terminals. Most of our problems arise from "thick clients": the diskless terminals we have require negligible maintenance. -- Christopher Dawkins, Felsted School, Dunmow, Essex CM6 3JG 01371-820527 or 07798 636725 cchd@felsted.essex.sch.uk
On Thu 10 Feb, Christopher Dawkins wrote:
I am convinced that diskless terminals getting all their applications and configuration from central servers are the key to a school system. Our BBCs were diskless terminals. Most of our problems arise from "thick clients": the diskless terminals we have require negligible maintenance.
The crux of the matter is in the last sentence. A successful school system does not permit any changes to either the configuration or any part of the local software. I achieve that result with RiscPCs because the OS is in ROM; the hard disc is write protected (other than a specifically public area); all software changes are made remotely from my 'command centre' from where I can unlock the hard discs and lock them again. So we are not dependent on a central server or networking. While in normal use the network supplies internet, intranet, central resources and filing/print, in emergency machines can still be used locally. We neither need, nor have any IT technician, and probably as a result my capital budget is sufficient. (I seem to be the devil's advocate in this group, but I am keen on Linux, honest) -- Martin Devon Stonar School
participants (3)
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Christopher Dawkins -
Martin Devon -
Roger Whittaker