Linux

Don't teach the kids about flatpak. Then they will soon discover Roblox/sober.

Does your school have an it department? If not maybe that can be a job for you. Someone will need to maintain that fleet.

There is way to do this that works with even older computers and is easy to manage.

That’s with Edubuntu and thin-client computing using the Linux Terminal Server project, LTSP.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EdubuntuDocumentation/EdubuntuCookbook/Chapter_5_-_Thin-Client_Computing

In that model, you install Linux once on a server. Each computer in the lab is set to boot over the network from the server.

This way there is one computer to maintain, the users can’t access root and all the storage is centralized.

Even old computers with low CPU and RAM and no hard drive can make good thin clients.

A number of schools have been using this approach for 15+ years.

https://www.edubuntu.org/

you're lucky to have an open-minded principle

This is a great story, and you should be really proud of yourself! Good job :). I used Linux through college and had very few issues (that I can remember!)

This is great for a handful of devices but I deploy and administrate hundreds of devices at my school. As much as I would love to, there's no way I could sell this without a really robust way of managing device policies & software deployment. I understand RHEL has something like that but that it isn't quite up to the same standard as the Microsoft admin ecosystem just yet.

Linux has been ready for education for a long time! Most of the public high school machines I interacted with in the mid 2000s were linux based. There was a dedicated Mac lab for creative work.

Nice! One step at a time.

lol I thought this was a guerrilla IT warfare post where you snuck in and did it, but you actually did it with permission.... 😂

Them paying you is so nice! I remember installing Ubuntu in some computer in high school before I even used Linux myself lol

Cool story bro.

Except the story is actually cool, and you're a real bro!

You have turned Roblox/Minecraft loving little kids into a lifelong Linux haters. 🤣

I applaud you.

PS: So how are the computers performing now?

I had dual booted Ubuntu with Windows when I was in college, without having any prior exposure to Linux or any skill in coding or even scripting. The install itself was incredibly easy and I was wondering why more kids don't do it. All the core functions that a computer was supposed to, Ubuntu was doing it better than Windows save one - running windows specific software.

I guess Linux was good enough for education back then itself, but it ddn't run fancy games and I could not convince anyone else to dual boot their PC.

I don’t know how developed your school system is but, I would advise the principal into blocking the websites via DNS that way the computers won’t resolve them.

AdGuard, PiHole, OpenSense are free open source DNS resolvers however, chances are your school already manages its own DNS so I would obviously consult with them first.

Is linux ready for the education sector? Kinda depends on the tools involved.

If its a google classroom kind of workflow and or everything is done in the browser, absolutely. Theres a reason Chromebooks got popular for schools, not just cause they're cheap, but being more locked down and basically only useful for in browser work made them a good alternative to Windows machines.

However, some stuff specific to certain courses or classes may not be compatible with linux. Something like a photo editing college course that requires adobe (ew) would be an example.

I'd personally love to see Linux in the education sector more. With immutable distros, no licensing costs, and lower hardware requirements, Linux is likely going to be really attractive to schools that are looking for alternatives.

So sick that you were able to do this. Kudos for taking the initiative and making your community better.

the boot order was all screwed, so since Ive worked with arch before I knew how to fix it, I booted up linux mint live image, chrooted, and fixed the boot order and computer went back to life

Can't you just change this in the BIOS?

does this mean linux now is ready for the education sector?

Linux has always been suitable (and I would argue ideal) in the education sector. But the reality is that almost no one is going to use Linux in a professional environment so there's an argument to be made that they should be using and learning Winblows.

Beautiful work .... I wish my school had done that when I was a kid.

The great thing about it is that now you are helping to generate a new crop of kids who will learn how to use Linux. Sure, they will try to do stupid things on it like install games or figure out how to bypass things or install or uninstall ... the great thing about that is that they will learn how to use the system in order to try to break it. It's the same way I learned how to use Linux and probably the same way you learned how to use it.

You've advanced the computer department for those kids more than you know.