Technology & Learning November 2007 - (Page 24) SYSTEM UTILITIES Commercial Norton Ghost Nero Burning Rom WinRAR Acrobat Reader Linux to the Rescue In the past, Linux was largely relegated to the back office as an operating system, out of sight of most teachers and students. But recent friendlier developments, including a graphical user interface, have made it increasingly viable for schools. Now it’s come out of the closet as districts seek even more innovative ROI solutions. According to a Compass Intelligence report, spending on IT personnel is anticipated to drop 5 percent a year, to $2.4 billion by 2010. And federal funding of the last protected block grant for technology, Enhancing Education Through Technology, has been steadily chipped away at since 2005. Today, old computers that would have been tossed out are being “repurposed” and set up either as desktops with a Linux OS (which tends to boot up faster with mature Open Source InfraRecorder Partition Image Ghost for Unix (G4U) CamStudio hardware than rival Microsoft) or transformed into “thin clients” (meaning, they are run off software housed on a school system server). Network servers are being “virtualized” with technology—rapidly being deployed in the education industry—that allows singleapplication servers to simultaneously run UNIX, Microsoft, and Apple. Cheaper technology, coupled with FOSS adoption, has freed up money in many districts’ tech budgets, allowing them to reinvest in IT training or broader professional development, or to bring even more computers or Internet-connected devices into the classroom. No question, the recent proliferation of cheap PCs has done a lot to bring Linux to the attention of the mainstream, both in and out of school. Put on the international radar by Nicholas http://www.cosn.org http://www.cosn.org http://www.k12schoolnetworking.org
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