Obtaining Linux-ready thin-clients

[Sanjay Sodhi]

School Boards are largely left to their own devices, as far as IT strategies
go. I know that my particular School Board hired a consulting firm for
implementation, and, presumably, development, of their technology framework.
I know that in my region, the school board paid something the region of a
hundred thousand dollars (fifty thousand pounds) for Microsoft SQL Server
licensing (A saving of negative one hundred thousand dollars! Proprietary
software is cheaper!) and is tied into a Windows architecture, with a handy
Novell front-end. Purely designing this would have cost many tens of
thousands of dollars.

Whether or not they are technically bound is not much more than legal
triviality when you consider that they simply cannot afford a complete
overhaul. With servers and management applications running on IIS with SQL
Server, Open Source is almost impossible.

I've completely detracted. Yes, I believe it is. Computers that use any form
of NFS, and that are hooked in, are considered to be using the software.
Computers that could be hooked in are considered to be using the software.
Essentially, you must be able to pay for a license for every client
connected to the NFS. You're charging someone half of the cost of a CD for
every CD player in his house. Isn't business fun?

Hopefully my venture into LTSP/Edubuntu will provide some solid data and
evidence of the feasibility of Linux. I've just had a brainstorming session,
and we've got some nice (and doable) things laid out. Wikis, Forums, the
whole shebang. Basic Web 2.0 principles applied! Web 2.0, for Christ's sake!
If overcomplicating the situation and giving it a snazzy name doesn't
justify it, then I'm completely lost.

On 27/10/2007, Brian Burger <blurdesign at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 10/26/07, Chris Powell <str8line at gmail.com> wrote:
> > From experience of trying to work with a school and school board and
> > promoting open source alternatives....there is one problem you may
> > encounter.  All equipment inside a school becomes property of the school
> > board, and all such equipment must meet their licensing agreements
> (meaning
> > they need to run Windows, connect through the board servers etc.).
>
> I've no idea if this is also true in Canada, but according to a BBC
> article I just read, some of the agreements MS has with schools in the
> UK require a Windows license for *every* computer in the school,
> whether or not MS products are in use on that machine. The mind
> boggles.
>
> From the article:
> "But a spokesman for Becta said the problem was that Microsoft
> required schools to have licences for every PC in a school that might
> use its software, whether they were actually doing so or running
> something else."
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7063716.stm
>
> Is this the case in Canadian schools too?
>
> Brian
> wirelizard.ca
>
> --
> ubuntu-ca mailing list
> ubuntu-ca at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-ca
>



-- 
Sanjay Sodhi
I make websites me.
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