Linux is the Future! Or Not?
Let me preface this post by saying that I am not here to bash Linux as a viable alternative for education. On the contrary, I am a big supporter of the open-source operating systems; as a college student, however, I have seen the potential pitfalls of switching. Linux, be it Ubuntu, Fedora, Open SUSE, or any of the other countless versions (or “distros” in Linux lingo) are fantastic pieces of software. Linux is endlessly customizable, 100% open-source, virtually virus-free, and most important of all, free of cost. So, why then do I say that it is not ready to be the cornerstone of education technology, when so many others, like Wes Fryer, see it as the way for educational institutions to free themselves from the bounds of corporate reliance?
While most people know what Linux is, only a small niche of people are using it daily for their computing needs. I would go so far as to say that the typical visitors of ISTEConnects possess an above-average knowledge of Linux and how it operates, based on the fact that the blog is tech-centric. Although to be frank, this is just not the case for many students and educators today. They may know what it is, but they are far from being proficient at using it. When it comes to switching over to Linux, institutions will run into major hurdles because it is not an “operating system” in the way that Windows XP/Vista/7 or Mac OS X are. It is a kernel that is at the core of operating systems like Ubuntu, Open SUSE, etc. so there is typically no support line to call (at least not with the free versions), and fewer training options available to end-users.
As a Loyola University student I have the luxury of attending classes in rooms fully-equipped with at least one computer and hi-resolution projector, allowing the professor to show slideshows and other content on demand. Countless times, either myself or someone else in the class has had to assist the professors in performing simple computing tasks, such as pulling up a YouTube video or correctly displaying a PowerPoint presentation. These are relatively easy tasks that even PhD-level professors have difficulty with. How then are these educators expected to function in something like Ubuntu, which includes eight separate text editors and countless other customizable software packages? Even software installation in Linux can, at times, be a major hassle. Many simple tasks are overly-complicated and require knowledge of backend commands. This is not necessarily a bad thing for the OS, it’s just the nature of many open-source operating systems today. In an article entitled, “Why Linux is not (yet) Ready for the Desktop,” author Artem S. Tashkinov lists many of the common obstacles that people face when switching from Windows to Linux.
Linux can, eventually, be a viable option for schools. The first step that needs to be taken is educating everyone involved in the transition, from school administrators down to the very teachers that will be using the computers. This is a step that is not easily accomplished. Currently, there are no simple training programs akin to Apple’s One to One, and there is little on-site technical support available at schools, unless the administration is willing to invest in either training their IT staff or hiring a new one. Linux is the future; it offers endless customization, freedom from malware, and above all, it is free. Unfortunately, until someone supports it for educational use the ways that Mac OS X or Windows are, Linux is going to be a hard sell.
10 Comments
Wes Fryer
Friday, 29th May 2009 at 3:28 pm
You raise good points, Zachary. The low comfort level of many (if not most) college professors with technology is a major obstacle. Professional development is key for any successful 1:1 initiative, and while that is generally provided for K-12 contexts, it’s interesting to consider how many university settings are moving to 1:1 for students but faculty are not being equipped with the guidance, training and support they often need to integrate technology effectively within their instruction.
One of the most practical issues when it comes to Linux in K12 schools is: Who are the vendors willing to help support schools in Linux-based 1:1 initiatives? With stimulus funds now on the table in states for districts to apply and compete to use, I’d love to see some viable vendor support for Linux installations. If companies are out there which will do this in the same way Apple, Dell, or HP would, I’d like to know about them.
Linspire was the main commercial company supporting a Linux distribution for school use that I’ve read about, but they went away in August of 2008. What other vendors are out there marketing and directly supporting Linux distros for education? I’m not sure.
I think a distribution like Sugar, which Sugarlabs distributes (among other sources) is a viable OS option for schools. Designed by OLPC for students, it certainly averts the issue of having 8 text editors that you reference, and provides over 60 educational programs (all free and open source) on top of the OS for students.
There is a school in California (which I can’t remember or grab the link for at this moment) which has rolled out EeePCs for middle school students, running Linux. The machines are setup so if there is a problem, users can hold down a key sequence and the OS will restore to its original settings. THAT is the type of support scenario I think schools need to realistically use Linux as a replacement OS for Windows or Mac.
Educational vendors supporting Linux? » Moving at the Speed of Creativity
Friday, 29th May 2009 at 3:42 pm
[...] for schools? This was a question I posted today as a comment to Zachary Saale’s post, “Linux Is The Future! Or Not?” You raise good points, Zachary. The low comfort level of many (if not most) college professors [...]
John Patten
Friday, 29th May 2009 at 4:22 pm
Hi Zachary….
We’ve rolled out over 500 Asus EeePCs 901 in 16 of our 5th grade classrooms to create a 1:1 environment for our students. Each netbook is running Linux. One tech could configure over a 100 netbooks in a day with nothing more than a few 4GB usb flash drives. This was our first deployment of Linux in the classroom and we have not had a single issue. Students, and for that matter teachers, don’t care what operating system is on them as long as they can use them to accomplish the task. If you asked any of our students what operating system they were using? They’d probably say windows. It doesn’t matter to them, and they don’t care. More info about how we’re using them is here: http://is.gd/JiEh . Also, Saugus Union School District rolled out over a 1000 of these to their students. Jim Klein runs their program and their link is http://community.saugususd.org/swattec
Jim Klein is a great contact when it comes to Linux and education.
Robert Chapman
Friday, 29th May 2009 at 4:54 pm
I appreciate these articles because they are important for continuing an important discussion. As a GNU/Linux, Windows and Mac user I can definitely appreciate some of the issues raised about switching operating platforms. One of the problems that can often come from these comparisons is accidentally creating a straw man argument. One example being the linked article about why GNU/Linux is not ready. Many of the reasons are either negligible for the average user or simply inaccurate. Support is available for GNU/Linux distros just like Windows and Mac. Many of the issues related to documentation, bugs, or user experience can just as easily be made about any operating environment. But comparisons alone are not the only point.
One of the main issues that seems to be overlooked in these discussions are the ethics behind why free software is used. I will try to not become Richard Stallman (he plays that role well enough on his own) but the point isn’t necessarily about ease of use, lack of bugs, or sets of features. While some experiences with operating environments might appear better we have to ask the question at what cost do they come? What freedoms am I giving up when I agree to participate? The free software foundation, linked below, has a lot to say about these issues and I would refer you to their site if you have not visited before. While some advocate the use of free software for the price, many of us that do it because of the freedoms that it provides ethically.
http://www.fsf.org/
Zachary Saale
Friday, 29th May 2009 at 11:19 pm
Wes, John, Robert, thank you for the comments!
Wes, I agree wholeheartedly with you on the implementation of 1:1 inititiatives in schools. It does indeed seem to be the case that many students are often better equipped and trained than the very faculty that is there to support them. This is an issue I have encountered often in the University that I attend and others that I have had the pleasure of visiting. As I said, we must ensure the faculty and staff are properly trained in the operation of Linux if the operating system is to take off. It will also take the support of vendors to make Linux successful.
Dell, fortunately has stepped up to the plate recently and recently released the Latitude 2100 netbook with Ubuntu pre-installed. Its nice to see vendors releasing computers with a fully functional version of Linux installed. Linspire or Lindows as it was also know as, was to say the least dissapointing. I felt that the developers missed the point and were focusing to much on the cheap aspect and not much else. It was essentially a poor-man’s Windows XP and that was its downfall.
John, Im quite impressed by the setup of the EeePCs. It really seems like you are heading in the right direction in terms of deploying Linux in schools. The implementation of iTalc has to be what I am most impressed by. Just allowing the teachers to have that control over a students computer seems like it could cut costs greatly and allow for a much more fluid learning environment for students. It also removes many of the obstacles faced in a typical computer filled classroom.
Asus has really brought a revolution to the classroom with the EeePCs. I honestly knew the brand before I had even heard the term “netbook” and Ive been continually impressed by what they’ve done. I’ve been seriously considering one for myself to tell the truth.
Robert, thats a fantastic site that you posted. I do think that using open-source software is, in a way, a very noble cause. Ive run various distros of Linux on one of my PCs for the past 6-7 years and I do enjoy the operating system. Unfortunetely I think that it some cases, even things like price are of no concern to the “decision-makers.” I have had friends who are system engineers whose quotes have been rejected because they were “suspiciously low.” As backwards as it sounds, I think in some case the fact that Linux is “free” is hurting it. We just need to do whatever it takes to educate those who call the shots.
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Saturday, 30th May 2009 at 12:19 am
[...] This post was Twitted by zcsaale – Real-url.org [...]
Jim
Sunday, 31st May 2009 at 11:29 am
I’ve just spent 3 days banging my head against a brick wall trying to install Ubuntu 9.04, supposedly the most accessible version. I did finally get it working – and then switched back to XP. The hassle I had trying to install, and particularly the atrocious support and documentation, has convinced me that continuing to use Ubuntu was going to be a constant haemorrage on my time and patience, and that it’s just not worth it.
I am bitterly disappointed, I had high hopes that Ubuntu was going to be an XP killer.
Some key points which HAVE to be addressed if Linux is ever going to be a viable contender to commercial OS’s for the home user:
- it has to work out of the box.I can’t stress this enough. I spent 2 days trying to get past GRUB Hard Disk Error, this simply isn’t good enough.
- dump Terminal. It’s a complete cop-out for writing easy, clickable install files, as well as gui front-ends for admin utilities.
- make applications simple to install. The repositories/package manager paradigm is opaque, buggy, and totally reliant on a working network.
- solve bugs once and for all in one release, then carry those solutions through to subsequent releases. From trawling the forums, there are regular offenders (like default keyring going beserk) which crop up time and time again over multiple distros.
Maybe Linux works where an IT manager can deploy to a business setting and have his/her techs sort out issues and produce a stable rollout. Fine. But for home users, forget it.
For the record – I’m a computer science graduate, bought my first computer 24 years ago (Amiga 500), and have started-up and run several tech companys including a pc manufacturing plant turning over $1m+ back in the mid-90s; so arguably with a little more knowledge than the average homeuser.
Free isn’t enough. It has to work, too. Right now, Linux sucks.
Robert Chapman
Monday, 1st June 2009 at 12:11 am
I can appreciate Jim’s frustration. I’ve had similar experiences with Linux. I remember my first adventure into Linux compiling a Gentoo distribution from scratch in 2004 (only for the brave). The problem is that I’ve had similar experiences with Windows and Mac systems. It’s the nature of computers that there are sometimes bad experiences. One day on a help-desk and you will find out quickly that no system is immune from these issues. But the issues that Jim raises by no means reflects all or even most experiences these days.
While Grub errors, I admit, are at times an issue almost all experiences I’ve had were either underlying hardware issues (jumper set wrong) or a badly burned disk. That might not be Jim’s experience but it’s been the case with me.
Getting rid of the CLI doesn’t address the issues of installing software. I would venture this is more an issue with trying to treat GNU/Linux like Windows rather than GNU/Linux. With most distributions it’s certainly possible to never interact with the CLI. But honestly, with time most find it to be quicker than a GUI for certain functions.
Application installation is relatively simple with most distributions. While there might at times be connection problems this is no different that any connection issues I’ve had with updating my Windows or Mac machines in the past. Almost any difficulty I’ve had with installing software on Linux has been due to the extensive nature of server related software. I can’t think of a single common desktop app that’s been anything but click and install.
While I always wish more bugs could be squashed this criticism is just as easily leveled at any operating environment. Let’s not pretend that Windows or Mac is without them.
I’m not criticizing Jim or anyone else for not using GNU/Linux. For some it simply isn’t a good option. But I believe that it’s a little generalized to say GNU/Linux sucks or is flatly unusable for home users. It’s simply not true for many and possibly most. Let’s be clear that criticizing Ubuntu isn’t the same as GNU/Linux.
I’m not a computer science major (history was more my thing). I’ve never run a million dollar business (unless you count mowing lawns as a teen). But I have seen average people with as much or less knowledge than me run GNU/Linux distributions just fine.
I hope that Jim will give it a go in the future. I hope his experiences are better. Maybe another distribution will better suit his needs (Fedora, SUSE, etc.) Best of luck in the future.
Dmitriy
Friday, 19th June 2009 at 12:48 am
I use Ubuntu every day along with Win 7. In Ubuntu: Nvidia card misbehaved not willing to keep the Power Miser settings – fixed after 3 days of endless trying. Firefox & Flash kept crashing – fixed them both after about a week of trying hard at it. Flashing screens/ blinking screens -fixed after two weeks of hacking at it. Sound card not working properly in accord with Thunderbird E-mail client – fixed after about 10 days of trying and going over forums…And the list goes on, but the end result is: SUPER STABLE SYSTEM WORKING EVERY DAY WITHOUT FAIL. No reboot needed. Use CLI everyday to install and remove apps, in fact using it as much as Windows CMD. I have no computer education whatsoever! My background is medical science. My advice: take it slowly by the day and you will learn to appreciate both, Linux and Windows.. Best of Luck! Linux is the future, because its open..
Tom McClain
Sunday, 21st June 2009 at 9:10 am
I am planning on attending NECC ‘09 next week and noticed this post. We have various versions of linux in our data center and several deployments to the desktop. Most of the desktop deployments are an effort to defray the costs at the desktop. Many of the districts within the service area we represent are concerned with the cost of licensing.
The interesting trend we’ve seen with applications within the organization is that many vendors are encouraging terminal solutions over client – server. With this in mind, I wrestle with the notion of why not deploy linux to the desktop loaded with Thunderbird and tsclient.
As for myself, I have been a linux desktop user for the past 12 years and continue to explore version distributions. In the end, the thing that brings me back to the Penguin Way is the stability of the underlying os and the ongoing support for commands (CLI) as well as the window manager despite system resources. I concur that it’s not a bed of roses sometimes however, I’m also not purchasing a new system just to run the OS. The freedom of choice will be the continued success of Linux.
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