Re: Linux in high schools.

["Scott Van Singel" <svansingel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have been searching for a good solution to old computers and the never
ending battle with Lic form MS.
The school that I am at, there is little hope of getting rid of MS
completely thanks to the TTI and the Laptops. If I changed the Office suite
programs here now, I would have 5 million questions a day on how to do
something on the computers.
When making a decesion to change to operating systems or application
programs, I have to keep in mind how easy will it be for the teachers to
adapt.
IF it will be difficult, then our helpdesk (along with the techs) are
hammerd with simple questions all day long.
For this reason, I need somthing to run on old computers and still run some
of the MS products.
One thing that Ihave noticed is using Linux Terminal Service.
(http://www.ltsp.org/index.php)
and also some good information from:
http://www.riverdale.k12.or.us/linux/index.html
These are good Terminal services, but I needed to have the clients be able
to view like they are running Windows 98 or 95.
I was pointed to http://www.netraverse.com/products/win4lin30/index.php for
their Win4Lin programs.
I also talked to  a guy named Paul Nelson from Riverdale School District
51J 11733 SW Breyman Ave.
         Portland, Oregon 97219.

What he did was test using the Shools k12LTSP from
http://www.riverdale.k12.or.us/linux/terminal/download.html
and then put the Win4Lin program on it. That would push a image or session
to the clients. From what I was told, it has been a sucess. Netravers will
have a server version out this summer (from what they said) that will give
multiple sessions to clients using the k12LTSP and win4lin server addition.

If this works out, I can use Linux products here at the school.

I will keep you guys posted on the progress.

Thank you,


Bruce Smith wrote:

> I know there is some interest on this list for Linux in high schools.
> (although not by me personally)
>
> I found this message on another LUG mailing list and thought I'd pass
> it along, FWIW.  I know nothing about it other than what is said below:
>
>     Bruce.
>
> -------- Original Message --------
>
> HELP BRING LINUX TO YOUR LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL!
> SuSE Linux recently announced the SuSE Free Linux Program for U.S. high
> schools--public or private. Administrators, IT specialists, or teachers
> can apply to participate in the program by filling out a form online.
> Qualifying schools will receive 10 or 20 copies of SuSE 7.0 boxed sets.
> (There are 2,000 boxed sets available.) This program's aim is part of
> an ongoing SuSE campaign to make open source computing the IT standard
> for operating systems and applications in educational institutions
> worldwide. SuSE is targeting high schools in an attempt to acquaint
> young people, as well as teachers and administrators, with the high
> quality of open source software, which enables educational institutions
> to free themselves from budget-draining licensing fees. Because your
> local high school computing faculty may not be aware of this
> initiative, why don't you pick up the phone and give them a call?
> http://www.suse.com/
> http://www.suse.com/cgi-bin/schools.pl

--
Scott Van Singel
Technology Director
Sturgis Public Schools
216 Vinewood
Sturgis, MI. 49091
Office: (616) 659-1512
Fax: (616) 651-1571
Email: svansingel@sturgis.k12.mi.us