Re: [SLUG] Which Distribution for schools?

[Jeff Waugh <jdub@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Trevor Gunter wrote:
>
> With the state govt. rollout of computers to schools we are free to choose
> what we like, basically either iMacs or Win98 machines of various ilk.


If you've got the opportunity to get iMacs, grab them. Your students won't
be able to screw them up as easily as beige boxes (expert hands reach in to
'fix', etc), they're prettier, cooler architecture (well!) and I'd take a
Mac over a Windows box *any* day of the week.


> I don't know enough about the various distributions apart from RH to decide?
> 
> 1) For an education envt (High school) is there a distro that is "Better" or
> to be preferred.


For desktops, not really. To be blunt, most distros end up the same when you
look at them front on. The back-end sysadmin stuff is your problem, but from
a user's perspective, Linux is Linux is Linux (or rather, X is X is X).

Your first priority should be to choose a desktop environment and/or window
manager combo that you can lock down without much fuss.

Here I'd recommend WindowMaker, but that's only because it used ot be my
primary WM.

Once you've got that worked out, spend some time considering how you want to
administer all these machines. (This is the point at which I say "Debian
makes for an excellent server, especially when you have to administer it
remotely" - weren't expecting that were you?)  :D


> 2) Should Linux reside within it's own partition or as I believe some
> distros can 'live' in a folder within windows.


Argh! RUN! RUN! RUN!

Look at it this way: you will never secure files on a Windows 98 machine
properly. So, what good is a secure OS (Linux), when I can just rummage
through C:\LINUX and delete whatever I want?

Separate partitions are the way to go.


> Any comments along these lines or any other suggestions most welcome. What's
> the best way of getting Linux more mainstream in schools?


It was mentioned earlier today, and I've been planning to implement a
similar scheme for some time; Sydney Uni have a little Linux partition on
most of their public access machines that can remotely replace partitions
with appropriate images - NT or otherwise.

Like I said, I'll be doing something rather like that, and once I'm done,
I'll post a FAQqy HOWTO thing. Might be a few weeks tho.


- Jeff


-- jdub@xxxxxxxxxxx ----------------------------- http://www.slug.org.au/ --

              linux.conf.au - coming to Sydney in January 2001

      Installing Linux Around Australia - http://linux.org.au/installfest/