Experience of implementing Ubuntu in a non-state educational institution
Hello, dear habrovchane!
I would like to share with you my experience of implementing Ubuntu Linux in the enterprise, and to make it even more interesting, I will tell you how I did it in a higher educational institution. Are you still thinking about transferring the company where you work to open source software? Then, perhaps, you will find answers to some of your questions under the cut.
So, let's begin.
')
It so happened that I work in the same place where I study. With your permission, I will not publish the name of the university, which will be discussed. I will give you only a little information so that you can describe your situation more clearly. This institution of higher education is a non-state educational institution of a humanitarian orientation, a rather large contingent of students. We are located in the Volga region, the city is not small, but the capital is still far away :)
So, it so happened that in the next, coming 2010, the year we will suffer the fate of any educational institution, namely, accreditation. Evil uncles and aunts come and begin to torment the rector, vice-rectors, ordinary workers and, of course, students. But everything would be fine, but the experience of passing such accreditation in the adjacent university showed that some especially corrosive testers also check the licensing of software installed on the organization’s computers. In connection with this circumstance, which could bring down the entire procedure, by me, to optimize the means of the organization, a project was proposed to transfer almost all PCs to open source software. Plan approved.
Of course, I had experience with Linux. But it was a distribution company NetUP! based on Knoppix, as well as Knoppix itself, ordered from an online store and even once installed on an old computer. Also, the book “Linux for Dummies” was read well, plus, of course, the Internet.
When choosing a distribution, I was guided, firstly, by full localization and logical interface, and secondly, by my own intuition. Which let me down twice. I started with ALT Linux. I do not want to throw stones in anyone's garden, but somehow he ... is unclear. For the initial mastering, it seemed clumsy (stupid girls with peroxide hair would sit with him at the PC). The second time, the devil pulled the download of Linux XP. Solemnly demolished an hour after installation. No comments.
Fortunately, the mind won and I downloaded and installed Ubuntu 9.04, then another beta, first on my own laptop, and then, as I understand it, on computers in a computer class. Well, on the rise. Currently, about a hundred computers are working under Ubuntu 9.04 and 9.10.
So, the problems that I encountered. The order of spontaneous, as the recall.
1. Well, of course, yelling and screaming employees. Unusual, uncomfortable, unusual solitaire, everything is different. Naturally, all dissatisfaction either subsided on its own, or I suppressed it, explaining how to work with the new system, or (in especially frost-baked cases) I had to submit the question to the authorities.
By the way, three purchased books on the subject of Linux and OpenOffice so no one has ever asked. And I offered!
2. Of course the strangeness. At first, the search for a change in page orientation in OpenOffice Writer turned into a two-minute attraction “find a tick”.
3. Since I mentioned OpenOffice, I can't help but kick it a little. Formatting documents created in Microsoft Word / Excel looked different in Writer / Calc. In some cases, these are trifles, but in some really large and complex documents, the correction seriously lacked.
4. Search for drivers. Glory to Ubunt, there were no problems with the drivers for the components. Drivers for Nvidia after training were installed in poltychka, with the other guts no problems. But there is such a big BUT. It is a disgusting support for Linux manufacturers of peripheral devices. Namely, I want to send a ray of "love" to my comrades from Canon. Laser printers of the LBP2900 series did not work at all. Even despite the presence of drivers on the official site. However, do not panic. "Ask google." There is a solution. The same goes for HP printers, albeit a bit less so. By the way, Canon scanners, massively purchased a long time ago, work very well with xsane. Let's take it to the magic.
5. Often, I just did not know what to do in case of a system or program failure. This rarely happened, but as usual, - aptly. Search engines did not give answers. I had to demolish the system.
BTW! Huge respect to the developers for the incredible omnivorous nature of the already installed system! I created an “archive” of clean new disks to which the system was promoted and when I bought a new computer (or another machine migrating from Windows) I just stuck a new hard drive and merged information from the old one. This is really cool.
Now for the learning process.
Since Ubuntu was installed on all 54 PCs in computer labs, it was necessary to rewrite computer science manuals in accordance with the new system interface and looking at its features.
I was very surprised and pleased with the reaction of students. There was no "psychos". All students simply followed the instructions of the teacher in the performance of tasks in the classroom. In my opinion, the difference for first-year students, on which OS they will be trained is zero! Well, that brains have not lost their flexibility. Well, I will not be distracted.
For some special items, like Information Management in Management, we had to additionally install Gnumeric computers (it has advanced tools for computing and graphing, rather than OpenOffice Calc).
The main work performed by our employees on computers is a printout of statements, schedules and other routine electronic paper work. There are no special programs, because the transfer to Linux was basically painless, considering, of course, the problems listed above.
As for accounting, then it had to buy licensed disks with Windows. I do not know how much easier it was than other options, but I did it that way.
There is another aspect related exclusively to the state system. Hosting FEPO (already a couple of times flashed on Habré) with the appearance of an executable file, designed only for Windows. In terms of the transition of Russian educational institutions to the secondary vocational education, this seems at least strange. However, the program was launched without any problems using the wine installed from the repositories.
Eventually. We have an organization that is almost completely translated into free software, which has not lost anything, has saved on licensing workplaces and is ready for accreditation (by the way, I haven’t written the award, but I have saved a lot).
Of course I have plans. For example, when I move to another building, I will not purchase new computers, but I will give preference to thin clients and a terminal server, including for the remaining small-scale accounting, detailed setting of the local file storage (at the moment I didn’t quite understand the shared folder), maybe I’ll get into virtual machines ... The main thing is to move forward in my own development! And when this organization only wins - it means admin good. It warms the soul.
If you have any questions - ask them in the comments, I will be happy to discuss on the subject of education, vocational education and technology and their coexistence that touched me so closely.
Quick solutions to complex issues and all the best to you!
PS And a couple of months ago, having just finished a massive migration, I installed a new Windows 7 on my Acer Travelmate 2483 laptop and exhaled relaxed ...
I would like to share with you my experience of implementing Ubuntu Linux in the enterprise, and to make it even more interesting, I will tell you how I did it in a higher educational institution. Are you still thinking about transferring the company where you work to open source software? Then, perhaps, you will find answers to some of your questions under the cut.
So, let's begin.
')
It so happened that I work in the same place where I study. With your permission, I will not publish the name of the university, which will be discussed. I will give you only a little information so that you can describe your situation more clearly. This institution of higher education is a non-state educational institution of a humanitarian orientation, a rather large contingent of students. We are located in the Volga region, the city is not small, but the capital is still far away :)
So, it so happened that in the next, coming 2010, the year we will suffer the fate of any educational institution, namely, accreditation. Evil uncles and aunts come and begin to torment the rector, vice-rectors, ordinary workers and, of course, students. But everything would be fine, but the experience of passing such accreditation in the adjacent university showed that some especially corrosive testers also check the licensing of software installed on the organization’s computers. In connection with this circumstance, which could bring down the entire procedure, by me, to optimize the means of the organization, a project was proposed to transfer almost all PCs to open source software. Plan approved.
Of course, I had experience with Linux. But it was a distribution company NetUP! based on Knoppix, as well as Knoppix itself, ordered from an online store and even once installed on an old computer. Also, the book “Linux for Dummies” was read well, plus, of course, the Internet.
When choosing a distribution, I was guided, firstly, by full localization and logical interface, and secondly, by my own intuition. Which let me down twice. I started with ALT Linux. I do not want to throw stones in anyone's garden, but somehow he ... is unclear. For the initial mastering, it seemed clumsy (stupid girls with peroxide hair would sit with him at the PC). The second time, the devil pulled the download of Linux XP. Solemnly demolished an hour after installation. No comments.
Fortunately, the mind won and I downloaded and installed Ubuntu 9.04, then another beta, first on my own laptop, and then, as I understand it, on computers in a computer class. Well, on the rise. Currently, about a hundred computers are working under Ubuntu 9.04 and 9.10.
So, the problems that I encountered. The order of spontaneous, as the recall.
1. Well, of course, yelling and screaming employees. Unusual, uncomfortable, unusual solitaire, everything is different. Naturally, all dissatisfaction either subsided on its own, or I suppressed it, explaining how to work with the new system, or (in especially frost-baked cases) I had to submit the question to the authorities.
By the way, three purchased books on the subject of Linux and OpenOffice so no one has ever asked. And I offered!
2. Of course the strangeness. At first, the search for a change in page orientation in OpenOffice Writer turned into a two-minute attraction “find a tick”.
3. Since I mentioned OpenOffice, I can't help but kick it a little. Formatting documents created in Microsoft Word / Excel looked different in Writer / Calc. In some cases, these are trifles, but in some really large and complex documents, the correction seriously lacked.
4. Search for drivers. Glory to Ubunt, there were no problems with the drivers for the components. Drivers for Nvidia after training were installed in poltychka, with the other guts no problems. But there is such a big BUT. It is a disgusting support for Linux manufacturers of peripheral devices. Namely, I want to send a ray of "love" to my comrades from Canon. Laser printers of the LBP2900 series did not work at all. Even despite the presence of drivers on the official site. However, do not panic. "Ask google." There is a solution. The same goes for HP printers, albeit a bit less so. By the way, Canon scanners, massively purchased a long time ago, work very well with xsane. Let's take it to the magic.
5. Often, I just did not know what to do in case of a system or program failure. This rarely happened, but as usual, - aptly. Search engines did not give answers. I had to demolish the system.
BTW! Huge respect to the developers for the incredible omnivorous nature of the already installed system! I created an “archive” of clean new disks to which the system was promoted and when I bought a new computer (or another machine migrating from Windows) I just stuck a new hard drive and merged information from the old one. This is really cool.
Now for the learning process.
Since Ubuntu was installed on all 54 PCs in computer labs, it was necessary to rewrite computer science manuals in accordance with the new system interface and looking at its features.
I was very surprised and pleased with the reaction of students. There was no "psychos". All students simply followed the instructions of the teacher in the performance of tasks in the classroom. In my opinion, the difference for first-year students, on which OS they will be trained is zero! Well, that brains have not lost their flexibility. Well, I will not be distracted.
For some special items, like Information Management in Management, we had to additionally install Gnumeric computers (it has advanced tools for computing and graphing, rather than OpenOffice Calc).
The main work performed by our employees on computers is a printout of statements, schedules and other routine electronic paper work. There are no special programs, because the transfer to Linux was basically painless, considering, of course, the problems listed above.
As for accounting, then it had to buy licensed disks with Windows. I do not know how much easier it was than other options, but I did it that way.
There is another aspect related exclusively to the state system. Hosting FEPO (already a couple of times flashed on Habré) with the appearance of an executable file, designed only for Windows. In terms of the transition of Russian educational institutions to the secondary vocational education, this seems at least strange. However, the program was launched without any problems using the wine installed from the repositories.
Eventually. We have an organization that is almost completely translated into free software, which has not lost anything, has saved on licensing workplaces and is ready for accreditation (by the way, I haven’t written the award, but I have saved a lot).
Of course I have plans. For example, when I move to another building, I will not purchase new computers, but I will give preference to thin clients and a terminal server, including for the remaining small-scale accounting, detailed setting of the local file storage (at the moment I didn’t quite understand the shared folder), maybe I’ll get into virtual machines ... The main thing is to move forward in my own development! And when this organization only wins - it means admin good. It warms the soul.
If you have any questions - ask them in the comments, I will be happy to discuss on the subject of education, vocational education and technology and their coexistence that touched me so closely.
Quick solutions to complex issues and all the best to you!
PS And a couple of months ago, having just finished a massive migration, I installed a new Windows 7 on my Acer Travelmate 2483 laptop and exhaled relaxed ...
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/79017/
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