Orwell High School, in Felixstowe England has just completed a change over from a Windows based network to Linux and they are overjoyed at the cost savings and new features of their network. The only part of the system that still uses Windows is a Terminal server 2003 system which is used to provide access over the network to any Windows only legacy applications. That machine is slated for removal once all the software has been replaced with Open Source equivalents.
For graphics, they use “TheGimp”, for desktop publishing there is “Scribus”, for Office application tasks they have OpenOffice.org and for database duties, they have MySQL. As an added benefit, the students have access to Squirrelmail (webmail) and their own FTP share, both accessible from outside the school.
The workstations don’t boot from their own hard drives any more, they now boot over the network from a Linux application server. That step alone drastically reduces the workload of their previously overworked techie as instead of updating dozens of Windows desktops, he now has only to update the application server. Not only that, but the budget allowed them to achieve far more then they could have with a Microsoft network.
This is likely to be the forbearer of a new trend, and these guys are happy to help any other schools that wish to give it a try. The students of the school have apparently been delighted with the new set-up and have taken to it like ducks to water.
Read the full article at TheRegister.com.
regards
Franki
