On Tue, 17 Apr 2007, Jim Kronebusch wrote:
What should Red Hat be doing in the education space?
First off, I don't think that this should be looked at as just
"education space". Many of the approaches to help education could also
be sold to businesses. Businesses need to save money as well, and the
education space leads to the business space after high school or
college. So when putting together a model, it may help to look at the
education space as a foot in the door to the business space.
Here is a quick background on myself. I work full time as the Tech
Admin for a Senior High School, Junior High School and 3 elementary
schools with about 850 students total. I also run a local computer
business on the side geared mostly for commercial support along with
some residential and 4 other local schools. I work with Windows, OSX
and Linux.
I think thin clients and central system management is the way to go for
schools and many businesses. However I see 2 major setbacks in this
area. First is scalability, currently there is not a foolproof,
efficient single setup that can scale many servers with hundreds of
clients. I know that Jim McQuillan has talked to an organization in
South America (I believe it is somewhere down there) who has put
together an excellent load balanced multi server setup that can handle a
few thousand client and he hopes to build this into future releases.
But that isn't guaranteed and is definitely a way out in the future.
There needs to be a fast and easy way to centrally manage 5000 thin
clients with a single server cluster. This is the main thing keeping
Thin clients out of schools in our area. It just doesn't make sense to
manage a separate system in each classroom, they all need to be tied
together so profiles and data are available in every classroom. Sure
Samba/LDAP with NFS mounted /home directories are a way to get there,
but this isn't always speed friendly and is not widely tested for
hardware guidelines. Second is multimedia. Much of what students need
computing for very multimedia based. Terminals (and fat clients for that
matter) need to be able to deliver good and consistent sound for all
apps. They also need to be equipped with the necessary software to
access all types of online content. Many sites students use contain
Windows Media, Shockwave, Flash, Real Media, Quicktime movies, etc.
Schools need a distribution that does this out of the box and is stable
doing so. They also need this all to play from within a web browser.
I am not an advocate of one to one computing being achieved with
laptops. I have overseen laptop programs in the past, and do not think
this is the way to go. They are costly to purchase, costly to maintain,
and have a shorter life cycle than thin clients.
I've heard this complaint with laptops elsewhere.
I personally think that the best way to give students access from home
is to have them remotely connect back to the server cluster at the
school and work just as they did in school. This has been done for
years in businesses and there should be no reason they can't do it in
schools.
Indiana is also doing this. An interesting side-effect it has on
students: when they log in from home, they don't conceive of themselves as
"doing homework". They think of it as "finishing work at school." Which
is a brilliant sleight of hand to accomplish in a kid's mind. :)
However remote connection clients for Linux are lacking in comparison to
their counter parts. Windows Remote Desktop can pass sound, communicate
with local printers, and is much better at speed. If I use VNC compared
to RDP I simply do not get near the same experience, RDP makes me feel
as if I am onsite where VNC has menu and typing lags. I think an
excellent Remote software package would be a great add-on as well.
/me nods.
So I guess to summarize I would love to see the following come about in
the future:
1. Seamless Cluster Management. With Windows 2003 server I can fire up
a management console and choose server roles, Linux needs this. I would
love that when I fire up my new Redhat Server it asked me what roles I
would like to assign to this machine. Roles could be Primary or
Secondary server, Application server (gui to walk through which apps to
export to other servers), DHCP server, File Server, Directory Server,
DNS Server, etc. Then when I choose each option it walks me through a
little wizard to configure the server role. If I happen to add a server
and choose Secondary, it would allow me to pick which primary server to
choose for each role with a simple gui that let me enter in the IP
address or name of which server was the primary for File serving,
Authentication, Applications and so on. I really think a nice GUI
server role management tool would go a long way.
2. Strong Multimedia delivery. I know there has been a lot of talk that
a move PulseAudio as opposed to ESD or ARTS should help. But along with
sound multimedia browser integration and a single do all player would be
great. I know multimedia is a must for schools out of the box.
3. A good compression remote desktop tool that can transport sound and
recognize local printers.
4. RedHat is obviously closely partnered with Dell since RedHat is the
only distro Dell will install on their servers. Work with Dell to
package server setups that can handle different sized schools. If I
could call Dell and talk to a server rep and let them know that I am
looking at deploying a Redhat based thin client setup in a school with
800 terminals and the rep could tell me that I need servers XYZ and ship
them as a configured package that I can just plug into my network and
start adding terminals, I would be in heaven. This wouldn't go just for
schools either, businesses could benefit from this as well. Right now
when I mention such a thing to a Dell server Rep they haven't a clue
what I am even talking about. There could be a few case studies and
some testing to determine how much hardware is needed and what the most
efficient way to cluster would be. (Personally I find a speed hit when
using Samba/LDAP with NFS mounted /home directories, there has to be a
more efficient way of doing things.) Redhat is definitely know as a
stable server operating system, couple that with Dell hardware support
and preconfigured packages, and you could stumble into a goldmine.
Maybe if Redhat and Dell worked together you could find 64bit server
setups with quad quad core Zeon processors and 32GB of RAM and 4 teamed
Gigabit NICS that could handle 1000 clients from a single machine.
People like me just don't have the resources to test this sort of thing
and see if it is possible.
5. Work with Dell or some other vendors and build an approved client
list that is known to work with the above preconfigured packages out of
the box. This could provide a start to finish package that is
guaranteed to work. Maybe Dell could even look at getting into the thin
client market along with RedHat.
6. Be sure that all common Education apps are in RedHat software
repository and can easily be installed with Yum Extender. I don't think
that they need to be prepackaged, but need to be easily searched as
Education applications and be available. A good scheduling/grading
appliation such as http://richtech.ca/openadmin/ or
http://www.miller-group.net/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 are
a must in this list.
7. Possibly build local vendor support for the sale and technical
support of such systems. I know my business would be interested in
supporting Southern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa area.
http://www.1-cs.com. Local support options may be a key in
implementation and making end users feel comfortable. If nothing else
knowing support is available could set minds at ease.
I think if Redhat could find solutions to the above problems they could
dominate one to one computing and the terminal services market in both
Education and Business. I am not sure how much of the above is even in
the realm of RedHat's scope but if nothing else they may be able to be a
good facilitator.
And you thought your message was long :-)
Jim Kronebusch
Heh. :)
Thanks for the feedback, Jim. I appreciate it.
--g
--
Greg DeKoenigsberg
Community Development Manager
Red Hat, Inc. :: 1-919-754-4255
"To whomsoever much hath been given...
...from him much shall be asked"
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