Linux in the library
Who would have thought that my county government was this daring? Normally, they are way too busy installing "Traffic Calming" devices in the road to make things worse. Via Matt Croydon comes word that the local libraries are moving to Linux for their public terminals:
(NewsForge]) Over the past year, the Howard County (Md.) Public Library has migrated more than 200 public PCs from Windows 98 and Windows NT to Linux. These PCs are used both to surf the Internet and to access the library's catalogues. NewsForge recently spoke with Brian Auger, associate director of the library, and the IT team responsible for the migration. We wanted to learn more about why and how it was accomplished, and how pleased they are with the results.
Interesting. I'd guess that licensing fees for things like Office are pretty steep for (typically cash strapped) organizations like public libraries.
Comments
Possible explanation
[Mike Brazinski] May 16, 2004 19:56:36.364
I can think of two reasons this could be occurring.
The first is that the machines could be donated older machines. The original owner probably didn't donate the license information and proper dcoumentation and the library could be concerned if some sort of audit for licenses occurs. The second is administration. These machines probably have a minimal software load. This load is probably enough just to get a browser running. If I were the admin for these machines, I would serious consider a Knoppix distribution. That way I don't have to worry about some bored kid hacking my machines, file system corruption, or viruses. I also don't have to worry about unapproved software being installed on the machine. Just a thought.