On Fri, 16 Mar 2001, Alan Harris wrote:
So, good meeting and the debates have begun. How to push Linux & Open Source (Free software) in schools :- Firstly (I'm going to get this off my chest now) Don't antagonise school technicians - I wouldn't give a thank you for a managed service - I might as well go work for EDS as work in a school with a managed service. So you can run Linux remotely for £50 which is great I admit. However, you are reducing the technicians role to that of someone who puts cartridges in printers and cleans mice.
...and checks cables and looks after the network hardware and makes purchasing decisions and polices internet access and helps teachers and pupils to get the best use out of the system and... There are many, many useful things that *only* an on-site technician (or whatever other job title you want to choose) can do. Actually maintaining the OS and other software is not one of them - this is an area that can benefit massively from the economies of scale that come with providing a service to tens or hundreds of schools.
There's a lot more to the role than you might think. The reason schools don't have technicians is that they can't pay the going rate for experienced techies because LEAS won't give them adequete budgets. I happen to be V. Lucky where I work and am paid quite well (approx. 17K p.a.).
As you say, not all schools are able to find or afford technicians. Many have to rely on teachers putting in a vast amount of work in their own time. For these schools, who do not have and are unlikely to get a technician, a managed service is perhaps a very suitable solution.
I've also built the current network, installed the servers and workstations and would like to move to Linux BUT - if you want to cost my time on a TCO basis then you can forget any hope of my using, considering or deploying Linux. Unless you've done this job
I have "done this job".
don't knock it on a TCO basis - you need schools techies to make this work and threatening them with cost based analysis will just make you and Linux lots of enemies.
Do I take it that you would prefer me not to publicise the TCO arguments in favour of using Linux managed services? If so, then I would be interested in how you could justify that position while remaining consistent with the ideals of "openness" and "free competition".
Schools need decent techies, after all are Fen systems going to travel 250 miles to fix a malfunctioning computer system?
Yes, if the school has purchased the £100 per month support policy that includes up to three site visits per annum to fix problems that cannot be resolved in any other way. Alternatively, schools can spend only £50 per month on support and pay for site visits only if they become necessary.
How many schools were represented last Monday?, three of the delegates were from one LEA. Businesses can't take the lead in this
Why not? Why should I be disqualified from taking an active role just because I choose to provide my services to several schools instead of one?
Should we really be 'teaching' pupils to use any single OS? surely it's better to use multiple OS's throughout the school, each OS in the place / subject to which it is best suited. Surely this way our children will learn what they need to know - transferable skills not packages.
You could argue that there is enough variety within Linux to provide an environment for learning transferable skills. StarOffice - KOffice - GNOME office bits, for example.
Are you absolutly convinced that Thin client is the best way - remember, no server, no network. What is needed in school networks is redundancy, no matter what environment / OS is being used. You don't get that with thin clients and that's why I don't use and would not consider them.
Multiple servers? We advise that 30 clients per server is a sensible upper limit, mainly on the basis of avoiding a single point of failure. With the money you save by using low-spec, thin-client hardware you can easily afford a couple of servers and the problem is solved.
Anyway, that's enough for now (I've had my little rant so i'll sit back and wait for the flames!) - I apologise in advance is if unknowingly insulted anybody but I do feel that we need to operate om a much broader base than is currently being discussed. I've got more to say but I think it's better to stop here....
I would have thought that the current base of both users (schools), suppliers and independent advocates is about as broad as you are going to get. Michael Brown Fen Systems Ltd.