Computer Laboratory for Schools
Ajith Kumar B.P., Nuclear Science Centre, New Delhi 110 067
ajith@nsc.ernet.in
Introduction
Computer Education at schools and colleges generally covers the fundamentals, application packages for word processing and spreadsheet plus teaching some programming languages. Beyond that it can be used as a tool for improving the quality of teaching science subjects. Cost of computer hardware has become affordable but the software sold under restricted license terms are very costly. At present most of the people and organizations are using illegal copies and not even aware of the license terms. The GNU/Linux system, developed by the efforts of the Free Software movement, has provided a better alternative.
GNU/Linux followed the design of time tested design of Unix and offers certain features that can reduce hardware costs considerably. Instead of having complete independent systems one can have a Linux Terminal Server system. Under LTS a single system can be connected to inexpensive graphics terminals. Such a setup is ideal for schools, offices etc.. This proposal is based on my own experience in implementing around 100 terminals at Nuclear Science Centre, New Delhi, and running it for the past one year. There are many other success stories from all over the world about the successful usage of LTS. The following sections gives a brief overview of the system and the enclosed CD contains the LTS package and many other educational softwares.
Hardware Requirements
LTS runs on the standard PC hardware. The Server is a complete PC with reasonable processing power and the Terminals are low end Pcs without and hard-disk, floppy or CD drives. The requirement of a 20 terminal system with Office suite, communication and programming tools are given below along with the cost estimate.
Server
A 1 GHz Pentium3 machine with 512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk is sufficient to support 20 - 30 terminals. The cost of such system is around Rs. 40,000/- only.
Terminals
Terminals are normal PCs without floppy, hard-disk or CD drives. The CPU need not be very fast and 32MB RAM is good enough. The cost of a Terminal using cyrix M3 or ADM CPU is around Rs.13,000/- only.
Networking
A 24 port fast ethernet hub and proper cabling will cost around Rs. 20,000/-.
The total cost of the 21 systems comes out to be Rs. 3.2 lakhs only. A 10 terminal system will cost less than Rs. 2 lakhs.
Software Requirements
On the server we can install one of the GNU/Linux Distributions like RedHat or Debian and it costs nothing. The GNU Linux Utilities for Education CD, distributed by Free Software User Group, Calicut, contains all the Software required for the schools. Setting up of a Terminals Server using it takes less than thirty minutes. It has Office Packages, programming language compilers and a lot of educational software.
Advantages of GNU/Linux based Terminal Server System
Reduced Hardware costs. A 20 terminal System costs 3.2 lakhs. On the other hand 20 separate systems will cost from 6 to 7 lakhs.
Easy to setup and maintain. You need to install software only on one system and just use it from all others.
Less maintenance. Most of the time the components like hard disks that are having moving parts goes bad. Terminals have no moving part other than the cooling fan.
UPS power only for the server if the power does not fail every half an hour. In a training envoronment the UPS is mainly to prevent software corruption by power failure. Terminals does not require it.
Software comes under the GNU General public license. According to the license terms we can use, moify and redistribute it. Due to the license terms the already existing software costs nothing. For proprietary software like Windows, we don't get this advantages even after paying huge amount of license fee.
Implementation Aspects
The existing computer hardware suppliers can install the LTS system. There is no new hardware involved. The required software training can be given within a short time Organizations like Keltron already has enough expertise to do it. School /College teachers can be trained to maintain the software. Infact Calicut has several teachers who has installed and maintain LTS systems. This expertise can be shared easily.
From the financial point of view also it can be managed easily by the schools. The total cost for 10 terminals is below 2 lakhs. An school with 2000 students can implement it by collecting a small amount of Rs.100 from each student to have the initial setup and further subscriptions can be used for maintenance and adding more terminals.
Bachground of this proposal
I have been working in the field of IT for Science and Technology for the past five years. Nuclear Science Centre uses GNU/Linux operating system due to its stability and reliability and has developed a lot of programs using it. Some of them is being distributed to different universities. Eventhough we were using it heavily for scientific computaton and control application, some people were using MSWindows for preparing reports and for communication. In June, 2001, the MNC selling the most populat operating system sent a letter to NSC asking a report on the usage of their software to be submitted within 60 days. This is the tactic applied by them all over the world and people are forced to spend huge amount of money or face legal actions. We had many licenses but nobody was spending time to keep track of it.
What we decided was a switching over to GNU/Linux and we implemented it by using Terminal Server System. It has been functioning for the past one year and resulted in a lot of savings in hardware also. Seeing the advantages offered by such a system, I started spending some time in propagating it. I had trained a group of people at Calicut, my hometown, and there are several installations running LTS there.
Conclusion
This proposal is based on actual experience and it seems to be ideal for a developing nation like ours. If anybody wants to learn more and take it to schools, please contact me.
References