Published by Robert Pogson February 22nd, 2007
in Uncategorized.
I hate to kick a man when he is down, but this guy is not all the way down…
Steve Ballmer held a press conference in which he announced to the world that his company was going to sue Linux (in all its forms) for violating his company’s patents. Then, just a few days later, his lawyers were arguing against ATT in the Supreme Court of the United States of America about some software when they stated that they agreed with ATT that software was not patentable, being just an idea or a string of bits, not an implementation of an invention. I figure that Ballmer cannot patent the computer because that is an old idea, and software on its own is not patentable, so they cannot very well patent software running on a computer.
So where’s the beef? This is purely FUD. They cannot sue Linux in any form for violating their precious patents, successfully. If they tried and fell flat, it would be game over sooner, rather than later. In my schools and classrooms the game is already over, and I have been in a different school every year since 1999, so I, personally, have introduced hundreds to Linux and the freedom Linux brings. I am now meeting many who have started using Linux without my help. That was rare only two years ago. The wave is here. A lot of conceptions are going to be swept aside including patentability of software, software monopolies, and Steve Ballmer.
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson February 9th, 2007
in Linux in Education.
Most thick client PCs are idling all day long. A power user may get an average utilization of 10% for browsing and word-processing. Linux terminal services are a way to harness that unused power: run processes for users at remote terminals. With a new PC, a typical user needs about 50 MB or RAM, and 100 MHZ of CPU power to be happy. The response time is kept low by using one of the newer CPUs with dual-core and lots of RAM so files are cached. Multiple discs helps, too, so several users at once may seek a file. The usual PC with 512 MB can handle perhaps 10 remote clients. 3-4 GB can run 30 easily and 50 with some noticeable slowing. When you consider that the server costs $1500 or so, you are only spending $50 or so on the box per user. This small contribution matched with the decreasing prices on monitors means the average seat on the system costs about $500. You can use almost any old PC as a thin client or you can buy a new one designed for the purpose for less than $200 + monitor keyboard and mouse.
With Free Software this is an unbeatable combination. That other OS cannot match the low per-seat cost of LTSP because Bill charges per-seat on his licences for servers, clients, and Office. Bill charges $40 per seat, just to access one of his servers on the LAN. We get to buy the server for that price with Linux.
Besides the capital cost advantages, a Linux terminal server is one machine needing software maintenance for 30 clients instead of 30 clients needing software maintenance. Is that a powerful motivator. At one school I designed. There were 700 computer accounts, six servers, and 130 thin clients. I needed only a few minutes each day to supervise the process, check the uptime, issue new passwords to the forgetful, and so on. The software maintenance was a few commands typed on any terminal sent to all the servers at once with a script. K12LTSP and EdUbuntu are two distros designed to set up LTSP on installation. One can set up a lab or workgroup on a LAN in less than an hour (a bit longer if you are a newbie and need your hand held). Even school teachers can do it. (;-) I are one…
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson February 7th, 2007
in Linux in Education.
LTSP in Education is an article I wrote while struggling with a school system that was desperately trying to keep Windows while being unable to keep it going. In it, I explain that Linux on thin clients is at the right price/performance point for educational organizations that are squeezed between tight budgets both in capital expenditures and maintenance. Using an operating system designed 7 years ago with little regard for security and having a copy of it on hundreds of hard drives all the while trying to respect an end-user licence agreement that is extremely limiting is a recipe for disaster. Some school divisions, being utterly unable to manage this juggling act have adopted Linux and been surprised by stability, ease of software maintenance and the joy of being able to do what needs to be done to educate students. Others refuse to accept the reality that Microsoft is dead, seeming still to fly only by its momentum.
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson February 7th, 2007
in Uncategorized.
| This is the blog of an old man who has been there and done that. I have worked with computers for nearly forty years. Lately I have been teaching and using GNU/Linux in schools. Last year, I designed a complete IT systems for a school and installed it. |
I have been using Linux since 1999 when I had several machines running that other OS failing daily. I installed Linux for my first time and those old machines ran flawlessly for months. I have been hooked on Linux and FLOSS ever since.
I intend to comment on what I am doing and what others are doing that matters to me. A lot of it will be about computers and FLOSS. Some will be about berries and mushrooms. See my homepage .
- Robert Pogson
