Paul Nelson is Technology Director at Riverdale High School in Portland, OR and co-creator of the K-12 Linux Terminal Server Project. K-12 LTSP is a really cool way to take older machines and breathe new life into them by connecting them to a powerful server that takes over the bulk of the computing tasks. For standard Web browsing and Office-like applications, schools can save a bunch of money using thin clients vs. full PCs.
Our podcast should be a pretty good introduction to Linux, open source, and thin client computing. We mention RedHat and Edubuntu, two Linux distributions of particular interest to schools, and the K-12 Linux in School Project which seeks to promote free and open source software in educational settings.
Download: STP-PaulNelson (16.9 MB, 36:35)
He had me until he mentioned the issue with sound/video on Linux. Paul himself recognized this issue and I would be reluctant to implement a mass Linux project simply because of this issue. The shift of computing/web away from almost exclusively text-based to a multimedia experiences is hard to ignore. I’m shocked when I see computers/labs without speakers or headsets.
But as he says, the Open Source world is working on this but if it depends on Apple and Windows releasing their code….I wonder when this will happen.
Thanks Tim for bringing such diverse topics.
I think Dean makes a good point and I believe Paul addresses that. Not all computers are good for all tasks. If you go into any computer lab, how many of the experiences are really multimedia experiences? I think a school can have media machines along side the K12LTSP lab and that would be effective in having both at a reasonable cost.
I think Paul was being careful when he said that there’s no legal way to play the video content. There is a program, MPlayer, that will play dozens of different formats, but the legality of some of the built-in and supplemental codecs is in doubt. I’m not an expert, but I think most of the issues are DMCA-related. (See the DMCA page at the Electronic Freedom Foundation.) It’s probably no accident that the MPlayer Web site is hosted in Hungary.
Much of the multimedia content on the web is in the form of Macromedia Flash. Macromedia does produce a legal free Linux version (binary only) of their Flash player. Flash sound does work on the clients. RealPlayer 10 also exists for Linux.
Good point, Robert. It’s really QuickTime and Windows Media that are most problematic on Linux.
The problem of sound on the clients working in some programs and not others is not a matter of codecs it is a basic LTSP sound problem. All programs that have sound in linux do not always play sound properly on terminals.
Quicktime and Window media can be made to work with Crossover office (wine) and other solutions (e.g. Mplayer- not sure if the sound works on LTSP). More troublesome is Shockwave. Sometimes it works with crossover office but not always.
I find it interesting that many people that discuss the cost savings, refer to the cost savings by reusing old hardware. I find the real cost savings to be more directly related to centralized management and better control over the computing environment. By going back to a centralized computing model, like the good ole days of dumb terminals, technicians will stop spending 75% of thier time reloading systems and removing malware/illegal apps/games/etc. I have setup two labs consisting of 30 thin clients each and an LTSP server. The labs have been very reliable and sound/mulit-media hasn’t become an issue. Terminal server technology is bringing back some sanity to enterprise support.
But what happens when you need to record a presentation on a thin client and view it later. So far I have found that this isn’t possilbe to do audio recording in a terminal server environment.
Then record it on a system that is setup for multimedia, video and audio recording. Thin clients aren’t meant to replace every PC. Some systems are needed to do specific tasks, however, most computers are used to do basic operations such as word processor and internet browsing. These are the systems that are being targeted with thin client technology.
Thanks very much for this podcast. I was convinced by Technology Rescue (Steve Hargadon) back in July 2005 to “try it out.” So we got 20 tiny boxes for our new LINUX lab at our school (http://www.stjohnsguam.com/main). We’re very happy with it. The sound issue is well, an issue … but we can live with it. We’re working on expanding to another 20 to place in our LRC. I think this a great setting for K12LTSP since our LRC computer setup is very much an internet research and type-your-report setup — just for what the LINUX setup can offer at a much lower cost than traditional PCs or low-end Macs. Task appropriate and ubiquitous computing.
Hi! I’m just starting to learn about Linux. I’m researching the compatibilty of my hardware right now. I heard Red Hat was good for beginners so I’m looking on their website. Just a couple questions..
1. I’m not finding anything about HD’s. Are they all supported then?
2. I did see some compatible motherboards.. Does that mean that certain motherboards aren’t going to work?
3. What ways (short of writing my own drivers) are available to work around incompatibilites with a particular Linux distribution? In other words, can you download drivers etc or is it not that simple?
4. I want to put it on its own excusive HD, and sometime after Christmas build a whole new computer for it from scratch. Am I going to have a lot of trouble with newer motherboards?(533MHz/Rambus/ATA 133)
Thanx
Heather, good luck with your Linux exploration. I wouldn’t expect too many problems with a modern computer. I would recommend Ubuntu as a good starter distribution. Another good alternative is SuSE. Have fun.