Centralised operation with Custom Debian Distribution called Skolelinux / Debian-Edu Experiences in Schools in five Norwegian Municipalities Software Libre By project manager Knut Yrvin 21th September 2006 Foils to free use and publication with crediting the author

If you find strange spelling errors You're totally correct. I am dyslexic

Disclaimer: Some of this is too complicated for teachers I'll talk about Experiences with central operated Skolelinux installations in 5 Norwegian municipalities. Touching 234 schools, 33.000 PC's and 101.000 users Client technology and network Time spent maintaining the network Economy User experiences Disclaimer: Some of this is too complicated for teachers

Skolelinux/Debian-Edu is A complete ICT-solution for the schools network architecture out of the box operational concept digital user profile OpenOffice and 75 user programs Presented in the pupils' mother tongue with the school's curriculum in mind Made for the school budget 1-2 hours to install and configure Try that with RedHat or Windows Server

More than 300 schools

What does others say about Skolelinux «Skolelinux has taken the plan for using computers in schools seriously. They have made a complete product that is tailored to the pupils' daily work and the resources that schools have» Statskonsult 2003:24 p28 «Thanks to Skolelinux there is a tailored Linux distribution for schools that is easy to install, update and maintain». Teleplan, October 2003 p24 «More use of Linux in education can contribute to school children being more flexible, innovative and more competent users of computers». The technology board, February 2004

The economic realities

Many principals have to choose between hardware or people Many principals have to choose between hardware or people. The headmaster says most of the schools have to pay expenses equivalent to one or two teacher positions ...

The Municipality of Nittedal's choice in 2001: Since we don't have the money to buy new equipment, we have to stay with Windows 98 until 2008. After introducing Skolelinux in 2002, we have the money to buy newer hardware, since we don't have to spend it on Microsoft licenses.

«Traditional» PC architecture from the 1990s

Thick clients Newer reused computers with 450-1000 Mhz. > 128 MB RAM. Local hard drive. The client runs «everything». Video, usb-pen, DVD, heavy Java, games etc. Considerable software administration is required on each client The programs run locally and are administered on every client

Classical PC arcitecture Supports media rich applications and National exams (a flash application) «One structure» for saving files and support services (server required at every school) Moderate bandwidth capacity. Less use of reused computers Must have newer hardware and locally installed software > 100 client machines LT File / login locally WS Services centrally e.g. e-mail, web 2-8 Mbit/s ADSL LT = Laptops WS = Workstations «Single» structures for running user applications ~150 EURO annually to operate every PC (Market price. Cost of hardware, network, licences or ICT officer excluded)

Oh, lets use graphical terminals such as Citrix or FreeNX This could breathe new life into the computers Yes, but it's expensive Why? Real thin clients or diskless workstations give the best cost/user ratio

The basics concerning client technology

Programs run centrally and locally. Double structure FreeNX or Citrix? Must have a local thick client Client must have a graphical terminal. Runs user applications centrally Both local and centralised operation FreeNX needs half the bandwidth compared to Citrix, Limited bandwidth capacity. No decent support for sound and video Programs run centrally and locally. Double structure

Centralized operation: FreeNX or Citrix Scarce support for media rich applications. National exams (flash application) have to be done on workstations To ensure local storage and Internet you need two structures for saving files and support services. (With Windows you need two servers at every location) Increased need for bandwidth. Less use of reused computers > 100 client machines GT File / login locally WS Terminal server centrally 2-8 Mbit/s ADSL GT = Graphical terminals WS = Workstations «Double» structures for running user applications ~240 - 550 EURO annually to operate every PC (Market price for huge installations. Cost of hardware, network, licences or ICT officer excluded.)

Real thin client (stateless) Old PC's (133-233 MHz) without local hard drive The applications run on the server, and support sound. Thin clients just handle keyboard and graphics on the screen No local administration! All the programs are maintained centrally

Diskless workstation (stateless) Newer reused computers with 450-1000 MHz. Swap on a local hard drive or over NFS/NBD The client runs «everything». Video, USB, DVD, heavy Java, games etc. As little administration as with the thin clients! The programs run locally but are administrated centrally

Centralised operation with Skolelinux DW TC 1 x File- / Client-server WS LT Centralised services e-mail etc. 1-8 Mbit/s broadband > 100 work stations TC =Thin client DW = Diskless Workstation LT = Laptops WS = Workstations Full support of media rich applications and net based exams with thin clients Runs thin clients (w/o hard drives), laptops, half thick clients, workstations etc. Reduced demands for bandwidth Full reuse of older hardware from 1995 and newer Simple structure for running user applications ~115 EURO annually to operate every stateless PC (Market price. Excludes cost of hardware, network, licences and ICT officer.)

Servers, bandwidth and clients 3 schools, 400 users and 150 clients at every school * Advantage: max. 60% of the machines is used at same time

Number of servers 3 schools. 150 clients and 400 users at every school * FreeNX or Citrix have limitations in supporting media rich applications.

Most important cost factors Simultaneous users Number of servers Maintenance of client software

Market prices annually Central operation and hardware MS Windows and MS Office licences are no included. Additional cost is ~37-38 Euro annually

The market prices tells us? Diskless workstations or half thick clients are the most cost efficient solution, with a running cost that is 40% less than all other options Using Citrix, Windows Terminal Server or FreeNX costs over 3 times more compared to any other client alternative (laptops probably have the same price ratio with current technology). Windows workstations has almost the same maintenance cost as Linux workstations if the hardware is identical (without counting in the licence cost) Hardware has the same cost as MS Office and Windows licenses after 5-6 years

Bandwidth, equipment, and placement Suppliers have a strong interest in the solutions they recommend to the schools The functionality of user applications depends strongly on the location of hardware. The most important factor is to educate teachers in the use of ICT

The municipalities

Workload 1 ½ – 2 man years to operate and maintain 500 clients

Running costs 2005: 3 Municipalities When running LTSP clients on old PC's

Total cost 2005: 3 Municipalities 60-70% of the cost is people 60-70% of the cost is people

Projected cost per PC in 2008 with doubling the amount of PCs Reduced cost for central operator: Skolelinux scales well

Running costs: locally versus centrally Ref: Teleplan (2003), The Municipality of Oslo (2004)

What do our experiences in municipalities tell us? Central operation is the most cost efficient way of maintaining the installation. Skolelinux costs less to run than solutions based on Windows The Skolelinux solution scales well Thin clients are cheaper to maintain than thick clients in most cases The cost of Microsoft licenses over 5-6 year is the same as the hardware (servers, clients)

What does this tell us? Other suppliers have to cut the number of clients or reduce the cost of operation to match Skolelinux. Why pay more to get less? The money used in the municipalities is hard to get. The less money you apply for compared to more expensive solutions, the more you increase your chance to receive a grant. That's because a less expensive ICT effort does less damage to the budget

Untrue objections Skolelinux doesn't support sound OpenOffice.org makes a mess Using Skolelinux doesn't prepare the pupils for their future jobs You have to be a Linux guru to operate the system There are no pedagogic programs on Linux

Objections about the clients Sound does not work on Skolelinux Sound works on thin clients, but it has to be turned on. With diskless and thick clients it just works Remember thin clients are intended for use on 10 year old hardware (133 Mhz). Under Windows, these machines are no longer supported. Consider diskless workstations for newer used hardware. Sound, USB memory, CD/DVD just work. (>450 Mhz, 256 MB RAM, swap-disk)

Objections about OpenOffice.org OpenOffice.org makes a mess when people take documents home from school These pupils have MS Office at home. What do we do with OpenOffice.org? Turn on MS Office 97 as default doc Teach the pupils to save in MS Office 97 for home use Give them a CD with OOo to use at home. Tell the parents and pupils to use OOo with OpenDocument

Must learn Microsoft because of work possibilities My kid should not learn niche products We did not know 15 years ago that Word Perfect would be replaced by Microsoft Word or that the Internet would be heavily used in education; we don't know what to expect in 10 years' time. We do know that pupils must learn to handle change. One thing does not exclude another. Most of the free software runs on Mac, Linux and Windows. Most teaching programs are platform independent in the browser,

You have to be a Linux guru? We don't trust Linux people that are interested in a cause. We have not the knowledge in our organisation. Many municipalities starting with Skolelinux had no prior knowledge They run big installations today without being a Linux guru, as well as supporting Windows on some clients They rely little on external support that is easy to find in 2006. That was not the situation 5 years ago. Many things have changed.

There are no pedagogic programs on Linux We use «drillpro» and other programs running on Windows that don't run on Linux Schools runs these kinds of programs under Wine on Skolelinux, or use replacements that are improved compared to old Windows programs. Most pedagogic programs are used in the Web browser, and most software vendors test their programs on Linux browsers before releasing Many schools have successfully completed the national exams using Skolelinux

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Questions?

We have some difficulties In Skolelinux 2.0 the swap on the thin clients was turned off by default All clients with 32 MB RAM crashed. In some municipalities about 50% of the clients were rendered useless Upgrading from 1.0 to 2.0 is too difficult Multilevel configuration will make upgrades easier Hardware support is not good enough We have tailored Kubuntu with configuration files that connects laptops to the school's network Support for Multiarch can support different client platforms (such as i386 on amd64, etc.)

In general We don't talk negatively about different desktop solutions or distributions Users want applications. Talking negatively about others reflects badly on yourself. That said, people that have used Windows tend to like KDE Our competitor is proprietary software The ICT-service in the municipality or the headmasters could be «bought» We goes after the lowest hanging fruit We help people that want help