School switch to linux suggestions?

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x98gulinski

Limp Gawd
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Dec 16, 2002
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The school I assist once in a while is thinking of switching from Windows to Linux, I keep trying to push them do do a full switch. Of course they aren't certain since no one knows anything about linux, meaning the IT staff. Can anyone recommend where to start or where to get some specific information that would help things go smoothly? I was thinking novell would be a good way to go , since i've toyed with it for some time. The main reason for switching is that the school administrator is trying to save a teachers job so they want to do this asap. There just isn't money to pay all the microsoft lincenses they have. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
 
for students, teachers, staff all, some? (Assuming Desktop replacement)

Will they be using terminal server with Linux our all individual Pcs / apps.? I would suggest Simply Mepis or Xandros for easy setup and fairly decent windows replacements. I will probably catch hell for saying this but if they are used to windows you may want to stay with KDE over Gnome. What version of windows are they running now? If older version then maybe look at icewm.


Simply you could go all free. Or I suppose you could pay for something like linspire. But free those Simply would be good, and there is even a new book for it.

Of course you always have your mainstreams, Suse, Mandriva, Fedora etc.

Simply is debian, I have not tried Ubuntu or Kubuntu yet so I cant comment.

One last one to also mention is Libranet which is also easy.

My comments are based on what your end users will go through changing, not so much what you will.

ok, Flame away :)
 
If you want something "quick and dirty," set up two machines to be LDAP servers (one master, one slave), use one of the LDAP servers as a kickstart server and use the same machine as an updating machine...For a local yum repository, if you wanted to go with Fedora Core or something like that. Look in to a machine for doing NFS, sl all of your client machines can have NFS-mounted home directories, so anyone can go to any machine and (within reason) have the same setup everywhere.

For just getting started, I'd say go with something like Fedora or Ubuntu. If you busted your tail, you could have the infrastructure in place and all accounts migrated in probably a week...Of course, that's counting on knowing what you want to do.

Fedora lends itself well to this kind of setup. We use a very similar setup at work (1,200 machines, 300+ users) with Fedora and it works out fairly nicely. I can't speak for the others, but I'm betting the more "polished" distributions would also work fairly well.

You can skip things, too...If you don't care for account sync, don't bother with LDAP. If you don't care for shared home directories, don't bother with NFS. However, centralized management of those kinds of things are good and you should give them a look, IMHO. You should at least look in to kickstart to do installs fast and an automated method for doing updates, however.
 
At first I think the desktop replacement is the first thing i'd like to do, all the machines are xp machines, other than the win2k server. I've suggested the terminal idea, and don't quite have full agreement. There's been a lot of new articles about it and not being a veteran linux user makes me have to read and read. I really need a proof of concept that everything will work, afterall the teachers really don't need much. I was thinking of a server and a pc just to demonstrate that it'll work and won't cost as much as someone is telling them it will. The students don't really use the computers as it's an elementary school, each class has one computer and the teachers generally are the ones using them. Eventhough once in a while it's used for research of demonstrations,
 
In regards to what hemi said, they currently don't have roaming profiles, each machine i seach teachers, which isn't smart, but it's what's there. That's why i'm trying to convince them of the terminal idea. Are there any good reads on setting something up, I know linux journal had something in it this month.
 
[H]EMI_426 said:
If you want something "quick and dirty," set up two machines to be LDAP servers (one master, one slave), use one of the LDAP servers as a kickstart server and use the same machine as an updating machine...For a local yum repository, if you wanted to go with Fedora Core or something like that. Look in to a machine for doing NFS, sl all of your client machines can have NFS-mounted home directories, so anyone can go to any machine and (within reason) have the same setup everywhere.

For just getting started, I'd say go with something like Fedora or Ubuntu. If you busted your tail, you could have the infrastructure in place and all accounts migrated in probably a week...Of course, that's counting on knowing what you want to do.

Fedora lends itself well to this kind of setup. We use a very similar setup at work (1,200 machines, 300+ users) with Fedora and it works out fairly nicely. I can't speak for the others, but I'm betting the more "polished" distributions would also work fairly well.

You can skip things, too...If you don't care for account sync, don't bother with LDAP. If you don't care for shared home directories, don't bother with NFS. However, centralized management of those kinds of things are good and you should give them a look, IMHO. You should at least look in to kickstart to do installs fast and an automated method for doing updates, however.
Click to expand...
Don't skip things. Centralize everything. If nothing else, it'll make your backups dead easy.

And after working with fedora as much as I have, I usually recommend people stay away from it. Suse is a better desktop ( and server. Gotta drop some cash on that tho ), and centos is a good server.
 
By don't skip things you mean? what exactly
Can I get a recommended order of what to do when?
I've heard of CentOS, and i think there's a new version out of it, I've mostly stuck with Suse, didn't care for fedora much. Xandros I'll use for demonstration, not sure what they'll want me to do. So again a list would be appreciated.
 
XOR != OR said:
Don't skip things. Centralize everything. If nothing else, it'll make your backups dead easy.

And after working with fedora as much as I have, I usually recommend people stay away from it. Suse is a better desktop ( and server. Gotta drop some cash on that tho ), and centos is a good server.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't skip things; it's just a suggestion for someone that is new.

x98gulinski: so what if they don't have roaming profiles now? You've got a chance to make things better for them, whether they know it or not. Being able to log in anywhere and do everything they need to as if they were at their own machine, and have everything "just work" and look the same, really is nice.

XOR != OR: been ages since I've seen you post. Welcome back. :)
 
Can I get a simple 5 step plan or something like that?
I don't have much info on the current setup as I do not work directly for them, I just volunteer once in a while and try to help the school administrator. I'm just trying to get whatever information as I can on the implementation process and what I could do and what the IT staff will be required to do. I personally love the idea of roaming profiles and think they should run diskless thin clients. Would save on hardware and data backups.
 
Actually, recycling their current workstations[1] as terminals would probably be the cheapest, and is likely to work about as well.
If you want an idea of how fast or not this'll be, here's a simple demonstration.

Take two computers. Two moderate school desktops will do.
Install some linux on both.
On the client, start an empty X server. ("X -ac :0" will do for this demonstration.)
On the server:
export DISPLAY="ip.of.other.pc:0"
startkde& (or whatever DE you like.)
Play with the client to get a feel for the speed.

Ssh-tunneling isn't really representative, thus this roundabout solution. :)
(For a better and easier solution you'd set up XDMCP, of course.)
If it feels as fast as, or faster than, the current windows desktops, you have your proof of concept ready. :D

[1] Given school standards, this is probably being to kind. "Cheap desktops"?
 
The k12 linux distro also has built LTSP support iirc. Check that out. They have some cool project links of guys that have done school conversions w/ a central linux server and the old machines get used as terminal clients.

/up late and tired
 
There's also Skolelinux[1], a norwegian project which claims to do just these things. (Check the "How"-page.)
Debian based, if that's your thing. Just be aware that they follow debian Woody, which is ... conservative.

OTOH, K12LTSP seems to be based on Fedora, if you prefer that.


[1] school-linux, aka debian-edu.
 
I've gotten a lot of info and finally some information from the school, it seems they will be buying new comps within the year. And they want to avoid the windows licensing, so they won't be switching too soon. They commented that they want the workstations to work as both standalone and possibly as terminals. Not sure if it's possible, but they will all still be attatched to the network. I'm trying to push the terminal idea with them, but they are being stubborn. I've looked at a few other distros specifically aimed at education. Once I have a more solid plan I will post it
 
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