[NH LoCo] Manchester school outreach

[Arc Riley]

On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 7:34 PM, Thomas A. Cantara <tacantara at gmail.com>wrote:

> Don't forget to add the cost effectiveness of OSS.


Heh - that's a given!  One of the core points of LTSP on a server cloud is
reducing the largest costs - human labor.  While software licensing fees are
an expense, with staff getting cut, IT folks are concerned about getting
over worked doing their regular run-around fixing workstations.

Being able to manage a small set of cloud "images" with student file storage
separate, and using either existing equipment or $100 terminals that plug
onto the back of LCD monitors, the real savings is not having to hire people
to handle the latest virus that's spreading through their network or fix
some workstation a student has messed with.

But even further, with student logging into a cloud, it really doesn't
matter where they are - including at the library or at home.  Each student
could have admin access own VM, which they could easily re-image if they
mess it up, and their home directory stored separately, and use that VM from
a home computer as readily as from school.

For that matter, those $100 thin-client terminals could be used from home to
the school's cloud, giving those servers something to do after 3pm.

This isn't just about the school - this is about students and their
families.  We do this right and we could add hundreds of local Ubuntu users
in the Fall, not to mention spread the community network to hundreds of
families.


Off topic for a second:  If you don't read the Nashua Telegraph, you
> missed an interesting article on the guy who has tied up the license
> plate "UNIX" in NH for a couple of decades.  Jon Hall, who lives in
> Amherst, was a Unix pioneer.


Yea Jon "maddog" Hall is a local, many of us have met him :-)  He's not just
a Unix pioneer, Linux wouldn't be what it is today without his involvement
with Linus Torvolds early on.

He actually chatted with us about the new LoCo at a BBQ last Summer and has
been fairly supportive, though he's not an Ubuntu user himself.
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