Re: [school-discuss] Needing estimates

[ian <ian.lynch2@ntlworld.com>]

On Wed, 2003-05-21 at 11:21, Streph Treadway wrote:
> On Tue, May 20, 2003 at 08:43:47PM -0700, Jennifer Dozar wrote:
> > I am taking a project management class right now, and for my current
> > project i decided to map out a transition project for a school district.
> > Migrating them from MS to Linux. I was curious of how much a school or
> > district would spend on renewing licensing for their computers a year.
> > How much would that run?  I am pseudo running this through the summer
> > while the kids are on summer break, so i am make believeing this is a
> > wonderfully feasible task :)   how many people do you think it would
> > take to do at least one school to backup certain files and install say
> > Debian on the computers?  What would be a reasonable fee for
> > repairs/problems to offer to a school/district for such a migration? 
> >
> I can't answer your questions, but I would be grateful to see your
> results.  I teach in a small urban district in Massachusetts, and I
> would love to try to adapt your work to our circumstances.  I expect our
> administration would welcome a well analyzed alternative.

We have actually done this in a couple of schools though bear in mind
that it wasn't a matter of wiping Windows off everything. That would
actually be easier. We integrated local windows on the client machines
and GNU/Linux thin client from servers over the whole site with things
like rsysnc to reset any local machines hacked by the kids etc. This
provides local Windows to run Windows only educational  software - most
runs on Win 95 and 32 meg. Thin client for heavy weight productivity
tools that would not run on the hardware anyway without massive
upgrades. So you have to compare the upgrade to Linux with say an
Upgrade to XP. The way we did this site was to install a network card in
all 250 machines with a bootROM on it, at £25 a machine. This included
the hardware itself and the labour and things such as flashing old
bioses that didn't support netboot. Cost ---> £6250.

Then set up the thin client servers and migrate users to those servers.
Typical cost is approximately £1000 per server. The number depends on
the number of concurrent users but in the is particular case I think it
was 3 - its easy to add extra servers if this isn't enough. Cost of
hardware, set up etc ----> £5000.

Remote management and support including things like all software
upgrades, machine config, unlimited E-mail and telephone support.Site
visits if nothing else can resolve the problems - about £2500 per
year.ie no-one at the school needs to know anything technical about
GNU/Linux.

This can only ever be a guide because there are other ways of doing it
eg boot from local hard drive instead of NIC etc. Also the system has
certain attractive features.

Only upgrade a client if it physically breaks because they are now
future proof with regard to Operating system and productivity apps
bloat. If necessary upgrade 3 servers to upgrade the whole net. The log
in screen presents 3 options. Net boot so you get to the thin client
only - handy if the hard drive has died in the machine. Windows boot
which logs onto Windows locally but user files are directed to their
user area. They can then use CygWin to access the thin client side from
Windows without having to logout first. Finally reset. Click reset and
rsync will check the local machine for file changes and restore any
windows files that have been hacked, damaged or deleted. So insecure
Windows 9x isn't a problem. No need for security software more money
saved.

Risk is also low because if the school decided Linux was not for them
they could pay the licences and use Terminal services in the same way.
This could be important in persuading a school to take the "risk" of a
non-M$ route. If they were going to upgrade to XP they would have to
renew half the hardware anyway.

Hope this helps.





> Yours,
> 
> Streph
-- 
ian <ian.lynch2@ntlworld.com>