I go to a programming school, where there were computers running ancient windows 8 and some were on windows 10, they ran really slow and were completely unrelaible when doing the tasks that are required, those computers in question had either i5-4750 (I think?) or i7-4970 so running windows 10 with all its bloat was not going to be an easy task for em, so long story short I decided to talk to the principal about it explaining why linux is so much better than windows and gave him reasons why linux will be better for us for education and he agreed after considering it for a bit, he let me know that some students play roblox or minecraft in middle of the lesson and he asks if linux would stop em from doing that, I stated that as long as they dont know how to work with wine/lutris or know any specific linux packages that run windows games on linux they should not be able to play in the middle of lessons. he gave me the green light to do it, so I spent like 3 days migrating like 20+ computers to linux (since I had to set them up and install some required applications for them) in the last day where I was doing a last check up on the PCs to make sure they are in working order, there was a computer having a problem of which where it didnt boot, I let the principal know about this to get permission to work on it, he said yes, so after some troubleshooting I realized 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, prinicipal came in checked on everything to make sure everything works, told me to wait for a bit, and then came back and paid me for his troubles (was a bit of a surprised since I expected nothing of the sort), the next day I came to school, sat down, turned PC on, noticed something was in the trash bin, opened it, found “robloxinstall.exe” on it, told the principal about it, he was pleased with it, so now 2 weeks later he seems now to be confident about linux, as he told me there is another class he is considering to move to linux.

so my question here would be: does this mean linux now is ready for the education sector?

(considering now, that I got a win win situation, I get to use an OS that I like in school, students gets to focus on the lessons instead of slacking.)

  • Sinfaen@beehaw.org
    1·
    2 days ago

    Figure out your mass deployment strategy and the tooling that you’ll need to support it. The reason why Ubuntu and rhel are popular in these kinds of sectors is because of this tooling

  • markstos@lemmy.world
    1·
    23 days ago

    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/

  • Alaknár@lemm.ee
    1·
    22 days ago

    I love Linux. I’m running Linux and love the experience.

    But…

    i7-4970 i7-4790 so running windows 10 with all its bloat was not going to be an easy task for em

    What in the world are you talking about, man??

    Even ignoring the silliness of the “bloat” - i7-4790 eats Win10 alive and asks for seconds.

    I stated that as long as they dont know how to work with wine/lutris or know any specific linux packages that run windows games on linux they should not be able to play in the middle of lessons

    So… No, you didn’t stop them from doing that. All it takes for them to get back to playing games is to google “linux roblox how to” and 20 minutes later they’re good to go. Windows has AppLocker, and GPO to prevent running unwanted software - have you researched alternatives for Linux?

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

    Well, depends on scale. The setup you did is fine for, what, a single classroom? Two classrooms? It’s completely unusable for a larger school - for that you need an MDM solution, ideally with some form of IAM. In the Windows world that’s SCCM/Intune with AD/EID (local/cloud). Correct me if I’m wrong, but there’s only bare-bones equivalents in the Linux world for that, which would be the bigger a problem the larger a school you’d be dealing with.

      • Alaknár@lemm.ee
        1·
        22 days ago

        Yeah, I guess I sound a bit aggressive. That wasn’t the intention. I just get an allergic reaction when I see the “Linux is just better than Windows now!” stuff. It is - in some scenarios. In others it’s worse. Someone who wants to do IT (and it kinda’ sounds like OP’s heading there) needs to understand that.

  • muusemuuse@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    22 days ago

    I’ve actually been using linux with older customers for years. It solves several problems. First, it lets them get more life out of their older machines. Second, its free. Third, the kind of malware that targets linux systems isnt really a factor for little old man on facebook. Finally, when scammers call, they cant establish credibility with my customers. They get in, remote access barely works thanks to wayland not liking their tools yet. The entire system looks different and the commands are different so they dont understand how it works but the customer does. So the scam falls apart where they try to prove they know what they are talking about because they cant use the terminal properly. It always ends the same way. My customers get suspicious and say “I’m going to call my computer guy” and the hang up.

    This trick has been successful for years and my users are very happy not to have to deal with microsoft’s bullshit. The fact that it confuses the hell out of scammers is just a nice bonus.

    • Ace120C@sopuli.xyzOP
      1·
      22 days ago

      its always funny to see scammers struggle with bash, I remember seeing a video about that and its so funny

  • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
    0·
    23 days ago

    Woohoo, some hacker kid is about to install Sober and Prism and will be the hero for everyone.

    My kid’s elementary school has a computer club handling all the PCs. The other day they were surprised to hear that the PCs they were playing GCompris, Ktuberling, Pingus, Super Tux, Tuxpaint and Tux Kart on are running Linux.

    • xor@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      23 days ago

      another example of: one of the best ways to teach children is to trick them.
      try to force them to use linux and the terminal? booooring, hell no….
      give them linux computers without games?
      they’re 1337 haxors in two weeks… with skills that will help them for life….
      especially if they ever get locked in a building with velociraptors….

  • Abnorc@lemm.ee
    0·
    22 days ago

    Are you now the IT support guy for these workstations, or is the school’s IT going to take over maintenance. I guess you have an internship or something if you are.

    • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
      1·
      22 days ago

      the school’s IT

      I wonder if that even exists. A mix of Windows 8 (EoL) and 10 (almost EoL) running on Haswells with students freely installing Roblox… it all gives an unmaintained vibe.

    • pulido@lemmings.world
      0·
      23 days ago

      Principal*

      Not being pedantic, just thought I’d let you and others know there are multiple ways to spell this word.

      • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        23 days ago

        I will be pedantic. There is only one way to spell each word; principal and principle are different words (though they share a root).