22,000 Indiana Students Using GNU/Linux Desktops

[piratePenguin]

http://www.crn.com/sections/breakingnews/breakingnews.jhtml?articleId=192201386

 By  Edward F. Moltzen,  CRN
4:10 PM EDT Wed. Aug. 16, 2006

How's this for back-to-school fashion: More than 20,000 Indiana students are now Linux-enabled under a state grant program to roll out low-cost, easy-to-manage workstations, which are running various flavors of the open-source operating system.

Mike Huffman, special assistant for technology at the Indiana Department of Education, said schools in the state have added Linux workstations for 22,000 students over the past year under the Affordable Classroom Computers for Every Secondary Student (ACCESS) program. And that could expand quickly with several new updated Linux distributions, such as Novell SUSE, Red Hat and Ubuntu.

This year, Huffman expects Linux desktop deployments to grow from 24 high schools to 80 high schools, driven by lower costs, higher functionality and early successes.

"The use of [Novell] SLED 10, I think, will increase significantly this year in schools, and we have Red Hat participating. They are getting some penetration in the local schools," Huffman said, adding that one school district has been having "a good deal of success with Ubuntu."

"The amazing part of this is, with everything we're doing in the classroom, teachers don't bring up Linux," he said. "They don't bring up open source. They bring up curriculum. You don't want the focus to be on Linux or open source."

Local schools can choose which platform to use, according to Huffman. "Many will install Windows machines. What we're doing in our grant program is, when we put one-to-one computers in language arts classrooms, they are loaded with Linux.

"We have a million kids in the state of Indiana," he continued. "If we were to pay $100 for software on each machine, each year, that's $100 million for software. That's well beyond our ability. That's why open source is so attractive. We can cut those costs down to $5 [on each computer] per year."


Huffman said he's eager to get a read on student acceptance of Linux. In surveying one classroom last year, he asked a student what he thought of using a Linux desktop vs. a Windows desktop, and the student responded, "Who cares?"

Approved suppliers for the program include Dell and Hewlett-Packard, as well as several system builders. All are supplying Linux-based desktops. HP and Dell have traditionally been strong allies of Microsoft, and their desktops and notebooks to the broader market are virtually all based on Windows.

"It's a very good program," said John Levy, CEO of Wintergreen Systems, an Elkhart, Ind.-based system builder that's on the ACCESS state contract. "The schools that have received [the grant] have been successful in their deployment. And the schools that have not received the product yet are trying to figure out if they need more infrastructure."

Wintergreen provides a complete desktop system for not more than $250. The PC maker has designed student workstations with clear tops that keep monitors out of the way so that teachers can see each student and monitor their work while they're on the computer.

Levy also said he believes new Linux distributions, such as Linspire's recently announced Freespire free Linux OS, will help drive the program. The number of students using Linux desktops in Indiana "will skyrocket," he added.

"I think within five years, we'll see a huge market shift," Huffman said. "But the Linux community really has to come together. They do have to have a common API; they've got to have a common installer. If those things don't exist, it will not be a competitive market again. If they do exist, I think it will."

Neat!

Slashdot discussion

[worker201]

Huffman said he's eager to get a read on student acceptance of Linux. In surveying one classroom last year, he asked a student what he thought of using a Linux desktop vs. a Windows desktop, and the student responded, "Who cares?"

Typical fucking high school punk.  However, if he doesn't give a crap, might as well use Linux.  Most states and their education systems are fucking broke.  It's amazing that no one else has considered this possibility as a means of saving $100 million per year.

[bedouin]

Typical fucking high school punk.  However, if he doesn't give a crap, might as well use Linux.  Most states and their education systems are fucking broke.  It's amazing that no one else has considered this possibility as a means of saving $100 million per year.

Isn't it kind of like asking a prisoner whether he'd like peanut butter and jelly or grilled cheese for lunch?  It doesn't change the fact that you're in prison, and it doesn't change the fact that you'd rather have a cheeseburger and fries anyway.

No matter what OS it runs, it's just another workstation they'll get shuffled off to when Mrs. Brown is too lazy to make a real lesson plan that day.  Solitaire time!  You can do busy work in Linux or Windows just fine.

So -- yeah, my response would been pretty similar at age 15.

[pofnlice]

I think this reflects the average mentality. I doubt most people even care what is in their computer, let alone what OS it has. All they want is something they don't have to mess with, turn on, do work, play games and cyber some fat chick/dude who is posting fake pix of themselves. It's only the OS collectors and technical minded people who seem to care.

[davidnix71]

Wintergreen sold systems through Tiger Direct. Tiger's national warehouse is in Indiana, so maybe the shipping is 'free'.

Glad to see that someone cares enough about saving tax money to try open source.

[_kill__bill]

Great. Now if Virginia would do that, but we just have all Windows and overpriced, overpowered Macs. You don't need a 256-bit graphics card and terabyte of RAM to surf the net at 3 mbps.

I'll be giving out Ubuntu cds on Screw Microsoft Day, of course. Even got some for Macs

[pofnlice]

The Good news about open source is actually funny. Thry could use those windows machines that millions of tax dollars were wasted on, and go on the internet to replace the OS with open source for free...But that wouldn't be right, a large organization would more than likely want to by a prpietary copy just to blame someone if their junk breaks...

[H_TeXMeX_H]

Huffman said he's eager to get a read on student acceptance of Linux. In surveying one classroom last year, he asked a student what he thought of using a Linux desktop vs. a Windows desktop, and the student responded, "Who cares?"

He shoulda bitchslapped that fucker, formatted his HDD and installed Window$ 3.1 on it And maybe some type of hardware based locking system to prevent him from ever changing his OS again.

[piratePenguin]

Window$ 3.1

No way! Windows XP!!


(3.1 can't possibly be worse than XP)

[pofnlice]

HA!!!

The new motto!

Linux
Because 22,000 students in Indiana can't be wrong.

[H_TeXMeX_H]

No way! Windows XP!!


(3.1 can't possibly be worse than XP)

No, not XP ... Me. If you never tried Me it's like XP, only much less stable, and damn slow. Still, 3.1 would be a pain to run cuz you're stuck with really old, buggy, shitty apps.

[worker201]

At least 3.1 had a viable shell and an integrated command line interface.  Even though it was a hacked-up piece of shit.

[GenuineAdvantage]

big deal. Around here there are about 2000 in the university, and this is a small non-entity place.

And speaking of the American public school system. If you think it's anything more than a warehouse to keep kids and teens out of adults' way in the day, then  you're quite an idealist.  

Btw, I doubt 3.1 would run on a modern PC. I tried running 98 on a brand new PC a few months ago. It choked for some reason. It has something to do with the processor. It could probably be fixed to run somehow, but who really cares.

[H_TeXMeX_H]

And speaking of the American public school system. If you think it's anything more than a warehouse to keep kids and teens out of adults' way in the day, then  you're quite an idealist.  

Sadly, that can't be more true

[GenuineAdvantage]

You're telling me. It was just a few years ago for me, I remember it well.