Is Linux the Answer?

By Janet Meizel

"Total Cost of Ownership…"
"Technology would be nice, but the costs are prohibitive,"
"The digital divide…"

These phrases are heard every day in the field of K-12 education.

We talk about these problems all the time, but how can we deal with them? Although costs are coming down all the time and there is actually a way to do it for free (okay- the machines have a price but the software and even help are available at little to no cost) many schools and districts routinely sign contracts with high-priced hardware and software companies.

There are, of course, good reasons to use some of the more expensive machines and their programs; capabilities for art, music, desktop and other publishing, applications which require advanced capabilities for interactive courses and there are linux-powered machines, which are capable of supporting major applications. After all, Linux operating systems have been used on internet servers for many years.

Although previously regarded as an operating system that was difficult to learn and was reserved for true geeks, when Gnome or other GUIs (Graphic User Interfaces) are loaded along with Linux, it becomes very easy to learn and to use.

The Linux expo in San Francisco last month provided many opportunities for learning about the possibilities and advantages of Linux in the educational setting.

The first one was, or course, inexpensive hardware using either free or inexpensive software. . Not everything we do in classrooms requires the highest-power machines. Word processing, web browsing, basic art and spreadsheets can be accomplished on machines with less power.

We've all heard of or seen the "$200.00 machines" developed for use in developing countries. Intel has produced another machine for similar use. Intel's classmate PC, is a small, mobile computer developed for students in emerging markets. It currently costs about US$285, but Intel expects volume manufacturing to bring that price down to about $200. That's not far from OLPC's laptop, which is now estimated to cost about $175 when it enters production. It has four to six hours of battery life and a rugged case. Windows XP or Linux installed, Wi-Fi, 256MB of RAM, and 2GB of flash memory instead of a hard disk. It is designed to be part of a network and can be monitored from the teacher's computer.

Mandriva (formerly Mandrake) has worked with Intel to provide an easy to use Linux operating system for the Classmate PC, using its flash memory. The program is responsive and takes very little of the computer's memory, leaving room for the other necessary programs.

Although these little machines are certainly not as fast as the standard ones, they can easily run word-processing programs and allow viewing of online and other curricular materials. They are child-sized and will serve nicely the needs of many students.

Although the groups producing these computers have concentrated on developing nations' needs, perhaps we can convince them to include our own districts in the U.S. which do not have the resources to purchase more expensive machines and programs in the future or to allow them to be used in the lower grades.

For those districts which have purchased or are going to purchase machines for use in the United States, many of the biggest companies are now including the Linux operating system as an option for lowering the cost of purchase of even the more powerful PCs.

Linux itself can be downloaded from various sites, or can be loaded from the CDs which come with books purchased at any bookstore. It comes in many versions:

• Red Hat
• SUSE
• Free BSD
• Gnome Foundation
• Ubuntu

Programs are available for academic use and administrative use, as well as programs which run servers. They are comparable to any of the comparable proprietary programs available. Moodle is a course management system, StarOffice is a full-featured word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and drawing program, GIMP is an image manipulation program, Stellarium is a planetarium, TUXPaint is a paint program for young students and there are many more.

The Free Software Foundation provides links to all sorts of software, including a wide variety of educational programs for all levels and subjects, as well as user groups: http://www.linux.org/apps/

Where do you get assistance when you have a question? The distributors of each of the variations offer help and there is an organization of knowledgeable people who donate their time and expertise and will answer questions.

Free help is available at:

• LinuxQuestions.org (yes, they will answer your questions at no cost)
• LUGs (local Linux Users' Groups)

For user groups in the United States:

• http://www.linux.org/groups/usa
  Search in Google for local groups, i.e. LUGOD (Sacramento/Davis), SF-LUG (San Francisco), BALUG (Bay Area)

For all countries:

• http://www.linux.org/groups/

Other resources are

• K12OpenSource (a WIKI)
• Indiana ACCESS Open Source Programs

When my classroom first went on the Internet in 1992, I was amazed by the skill and generosity of the people who were developing the tools we used. It is wonderful to see that that spirit still exists and is available for education.