I discovered GNU/Linux works well in schools in 2000. Many other schools have found the same thing repeatedly:
“Low cost and the ease of management are the main advantages”
I remember one of the last laboratories I set up. It was constantly being unavailable to larger classes because XP was freezing. Rather than struggle with XP, I installed a GNU/Linux terminal server and brought the count of working PCs up to 24 from 14. I even dusted off some ancient wrecks and made them work as thin clients. I kept dropping in on that lab to see if there were any problems. There never were. It just kept working like the Engergizer Bunny.
That’s what schools want, not slavery to M$, lock-in, re-re-reboots, BSODs, phoning home, inventories of “certificates of authenticity” and threats of software audits. Life is just so much simpler with GNU/Linux. I recommend Debian GNU/Linux because of its huge repository of software and package management system.
see Open source default choice for some Czech schools | Joinup.
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From the cite:
“The main reason for keeping a virtualised installation of a proprietary operating system is widely uses Czech information application for schools, which requires the proprietary operating system”
Sounds like a post from Mr. O! Also sounds like they can’t get by with just Linux. What do you suppose the “proprietary operation system” might be?
I do hope Apple releases an iPad mini. It will revolutionize the education industry.
Have you seen the large numbers of top quality education apps for iPad?
Tar 16 million Android tablets for education are rolling out in Turkey alone.
Tar you really need to take a side look at Android. here are lot of good education apps for Android.
http://www.amarino-toolkit.net/ Android also reaches out and does robotics. Yes its possible to program Arduino boards from the the Android device without rooting it.
Yes there are some nice introduction books http://www.duinodroid.com/
Problem is I can order more android devices for my dollar than apple ones Tar. This is the MS Dos problem all over again.
Clarence Moon
“Sounds like a post from Mr. O! Also sounds like they can’t get by with just Linux. What do you suppose the “proprietary operation system” might be?”
Reality is when dos first entered you has the past systems remain around.
Are you going to try to dispute that they have not saved money Clarence Moon. I think you will not be that stupid.
They say its for one application “Czech information application for schools”. What happens in future if this changes Clarence Moon. More that are using Linux the more pressure there will be to provide a Linux version.
That they are only dependant on 1 application is highly impressive.
Clarence Moon oldman cannot get by with just Windows in his server room either. So at this stage lot of people require both OS’s. The question is the ratio required. If only 20 percent of market space needs Microsoft this is going to be bad for Microsoft bottom line.
Am i right if i claimed that it’s more likely Japan, S.Korea and some other Asian nations as weak points for Linux? How many times have you heard Japanese and Koreans as leading Linux advocates in Linux community?
Mats Hagglund really check out the videos from http://video.linux.com/categories/linuxcon-japan-2012
Particularly http://video.linux.com/videos/panel-being-a-japanese-linux-developer-and-working-on-linux-for-a-japanese-company
http://linuxconjapan2012.sched.org/speaker/jongbaekpark
Korea is one the major OSS law centres is based there.
Mats Hagglund Linux fairly much has advocates everywhere. Linux fact they are running out of time in the year to host conferences not overlapping with each other.
Asian area Linux is not weak. Japanese and Koreans advocates mostly remain to there own countries. the Taiwan advocates will come a visiting to the Australian Linux conferences at least.
Oh, please! Don’t kid yourself, Mr. Ham. Linux in Japan can be aptly described as the subculture of a subculture of a subculture. It’s that small a niche.
Chris Weig wrote, “Linux in Japan can be aptly described as the subculture of a subculture of a subculture. It’s that small a niche.”
Hmmm…
They’ve had a Linux User Group since 1994.
You can already stop there, Mr. Pogson. Please investigate Japan’s (or rather Tokyo’s) Linux user groups in detail. Most are staffed for the greater part by non-Japanese who live in Japan.
Just one more thing …
In 2009, it was realized that support of the language was wanting. ” Essentially, if you want to use Linux in Japan, you need to learn English”. see Linux in Japan? By 2011, typing and displaying Japanese was no problem in Ubuntu 11.04.
OMG! So much misinformation on a Linux blog. No, in 2009 you were perfectly able to write in Japanese on Linux. Here is かんな, one of the oldest IMEs for Linux. It was already there in Debian 1.1:
http://www.nec.co.jp/canna/
IBM encourages clients to use Linux because Linux is labour-intensive. It requires lots of nerds to make it run smoothly. And billing by the hour, good for IBM!
Tar
“IBM encourages clients to use Linux because Linux is labour-intensive. It requires lots of nerds to make it run smoothly. And billing by the hour, good for IBM!”
Read IBM support contract some time. They are quality of service contracts. Meaning if it don’t run smoothly IBM is the one paying out.
Bogus idea again Tar. Linux on average requires less maintenance than windows. Setting the thing up the first time correctly can be the prick from hell at times. IBM basically charges for the setup then basically insurance that it runs correctly with IBM planning to have to do very few hours and pocket the insurance money.
Best way to make money is being paid for doing nothing Tar. Yes insurance.
Really you have the IBM model wrong Tar.
Chris Weig
http://globalizer.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/ime-on-linux/
Your date for Japanese input is a little out. 2008 it was still horrible to setup.
“Essentially, if you want to use Linux in Japan, you need to learn English”
This quote is not about input but about help like man files not being translated into Japanese. From 2008 to now lot more of the common documentation is available in Japanese.
The major distrobutions addressing this documentation short have been turbolinux that is a distribution that is quite unique to Japanese normally not found out side there. Ubuntu and Mandriva.
Chris Weig interesting right that japanese have there own unique distribution that is mostly japanese only.
Taiwan is a head on localisation. So they have more time for other things.
There have been some quite interesting turbolinux products made that were only sold in japanese no english support on them out box.
oiaohm wrote, of Japanese GNU/Linux, “2008 it was still horrible to setup.”
That’s of no account to OEMs and system administrators. They do a prototype and copy it.
oiaohm wrote, “Setting the thing up the first time correctly can be the prick from hell at times. IBM basically charges for the setup then basically insurance that it runs correctly with IBM planning to have to do very few hours and pocket the insurance money.”
Amen. It took me a month of work to design and to install a complete system for a school running GNU/Linux but only minutes per day to reset a few passwords and to verify that everything continued to run. Then I did my day-job. Break-even for the project was Day One because it cost less than using that other OS. After that we had superior performance and much easier administration. Many quote 50-80% reduction in manpower required to maintain the system with GNU/Linux. I think it’s larger than that because so much work is done by the distro and the package manager leaving very little except interactions with users. The installation I did has had exactly two hardware glitches since Day One and very few software problems except upgrading to the next release in six years for 153 seats and six servers. The world of business is moving to thin clients pretty rapidly and GNU/Linux has no problem running a thin clent because the apps are on the server. Thin client = no lock-in.
Your date for Japanese input is a little out. 2008 it was still horrible to setup.
No, it wasn’t. Compared to 1996 — when I used Canna on SuSE — it was a piece of cake.
“Essentially, if you want to use Linux in Japan, you need to learn English”
This quote is not about input but about help like man files not being translated into Japanese. From 2008 to now lot more of the common documentation is available in Japanese.
Here’s a news flash: that hasn’t really changed. While today’s translations for the widely spoken languages are almost complete, they are often enough horrible. In my opinion, you are still better off with Linux today if you simply switch your whole desktop to English. English is still the lingua franca of Linux. There are more websites, tutorials, books etc. available in English than in any other language. If you start developing FLOSS you’ll most likely do it in English. LibreOffice received a huge boost after the source code comments had been translated from German to English.
Good points. LibreOffice has a Japanese site. I have no idea how well it works but the world needs software and can make its own with FLOSS. I expect sooner or later it will be more widely accepted. LibreOffice and a good browser cover a huge part of PC usage.
According to Statcounter, Japan has taken FLOSS browsers but not FLOSS OS, so language barrier is not absolute.
Chris Weig “No, it wasn’t. Compared to 1996 — when I used Canna on SuSE — it was a piece of cake.”
Ok yes it was better than then. The instructions in Japanese to setup Canna had bugs in 2008 and the english instruction were also buggy. Really not fun when it was look at source and go o that is why it don’t work.
Documentation and translation has been the major problems.
Even in Windows software there are programs that are very badly translated
Chris Weig
“While today’s translations for the widely spoken languages are almost complete, they are often enough horrible.”
So you would be like me they have been improved since 2008 from being very splotchy but still need work in places. I do German on my system on my system from time to time so yes looking in the translation files do happen with me.
Chris Weig when it comes to all reference materials there is more in English than most other Languages this include using MS Windows, Unix or anything else.
The computer world in general in documentation is bias to English. Next greatest is Spanish. That does not really help you when you want Japanese or German. German has improved a lot with the government usage there. Same is happening with the Japanese as there government usage increases also the usage in the stock exchange there helped.
Chris Weig sometimes it pays to step back a little bit at look computer industry as a whole. Apple and Microsoft are very much a bed of roses in Japanese or German. Lot of thorns.
It does not matter what way you go bad translations will be out to draw blood. Most fun with one german app was someone translating mixed up Ok and Cancel and that was under Windows. Under apple saw a case of confirm some how getting translated to a german swear word. Problem was this was a program for school grades 1 to 4. So yes I have seen some real shockers of translation errors on all platforms. Some put teachers in really hard locations.
Of course I am not saying Linux cannot do better. We have to be very careful to not over criticise Linux for something that is a common IT problem.
The common IT problem of translations I don’t know how to really fix fully.
Chris Weig interest thing I have notice. Improvements in translations to particular languages appear to align with government usage of the OS. This does not matter if it Linux, OS X, Windows or some other OS we have never heard of. If the governments of the people using that Language is using it the translations are between decent and good for those usages.
Don’t have enough data yet to 100 percent confirm that.
“Clarence Moon oldman cannot get by with just Windows in his server room either. So at this stage lot of people require both OS’s. The question is the ratio required. If only 20 percent of market space needs Microsoft this is going to be bad for Microsoft bottom line.”
IN fact the split between windows and Linux in my environment in the server room is close to 50-50. On desktops on the administrative side its windows 95%, OS X 4.5%, linux at somewhere ca. .5%