OLinux: Who did came up with the LFSP idea? Who are the
people behind the project?
Phil Jones:
I started the project. I first got into Linux because I heard
it was free and IBM were doing support for it. The project
began because I was fascinated by the multiuser capabilities
of Linux. Coming from Windows I found it amazing that a
single Linux machine can support multiple interactive user
sessions at the same time. I wanted to prove to myself and
others that it works. I thought a school would be a good
place to test in. I met Nigel Paul of
St John's School
at the
London Linux User
Group
and he invited me to his school.
OLinux: What were de main ideas in the begining?
Phil Jones:
The main idea was to provide a Linux account for 80 pupils.
We set this up on an otherwise obsolete P166 computer which
lives on the school's internal network. We have given each
pupil a personal web page, MySQL database, telnet access,
email with Pine and network chat with 'talk'. The purpose is
to teach HTML and publishing web pages, PHP and MySQL, remote
access with telnet, Unix commands, simple Telnet based email,
email etiquette and network chat. The chat part is just for
fun, but we use that to show that a single machine can be
accessed remotely and support many users at the same
time.
OLinux: Tell us a bit more about the softwares developed
for this project. Who is responsible for the development of
the LFSP packages components?
Phil Jones:
The software packages are Createusers, Gethelp, Mysqlquota
and Web User Interface. The first three are my own work and
the last one is adapted from
Emmanuel
Pierre's program
.
Createusers adds users in bulk. Gethelp provides a quick
reference of simple Unix commands in telnet sessions.
Mysqlquota allows the size of user's MySQL databases to be
controlled using Linux quota. Web User Interface is a CGI
script that lists all user home pages.
I developed them with a little help from the Unix hackers
at my previous employer,
Three Valleys Water
and the London Linux User Group.
OLinux: What are the advantages of using Linux in an
educational lab?
Phil Jones:
Control. Freedom. Stability. Security. Lower costs. Better
performance. Great support from Linux-using education
community. An escape from the upgrade trap. No licence
hassles. And a brilliant way to make otherwise obsolete
computers useful again; see the
Linux Terminal Server
Project
for more about this.
OLinux: In your opinion, what are the main obstacles to
get Linux inside the schools? What do you think about the
benefits of the open code?
Phil Jones:
Unfamiliarity, compatibility and the time/effort needed are
the main obstacles. Linux is a 'rawer' computing experience
that requires learning. The rewards are there, of course.
Compability with Microsoft Word is a problem because that
program's everywhere. In so many schools they're just trying
to keep what they've got working and there's no time or
resources for trying out something new.
There's also a (wrong) perception that schools have to
give children what they'll find in the workplace. Children
can easily adapt from one platform to another. Also by the
time they get out of school it'll all have changed anyway. If
my school had that idea then they would have trained me at
twelve to be expert on Word Perfect 4.1 for DOS. There's no
need to worry about it. Trust in kids' adaptability.
The open code is a massive benefit because it gives back
power to the users. In what other system is everything open
to inspection? Where else do users have the option to fix
things they don't like?
OLinux: How old are the kids in this project? Puting the
kids in contact with Linux since they are realy young can
possibly estimulate the use of Linux at home?
Phil Jones:
They are under 13. Ten years old is a good time to start. At
home, children will have whatever computer they're supposed
to have to play games on. Some geek kids may get into Linux
so some familiarity from school is going to help there.
OLinux: IBM is investing a large amount of money in
Universities at developed coutries like USA and Canada. On
the other hand, Microsoft is parcialy opening the code of
its softwares for Universities at sub-developed countries
such Brazil. In your opinion, what's the diference between
these two strategies?
Phil Jones:
I don't really know. I suppose IBM is doing whatever they
think is appropriate for them in the country in which they're
working. It must be bad to feel left out, if that's what
you're thinking. However much IBM invests in Brazil, they
must be hoping they will do well out of it in the end, so
good luck to them.
OLinux: Can you tell us how many scholls are using the
LFSP packages?
Phil Jones:
No. I know of two, that's it. I don't know how many times the
packages have been downloaded, let alone whether they are
being used.
OLinux: What's been doing to propagate the LFSP to the
rest of the World?
Phil Jones:
It's on
Freshmeat
and there have been a couple of articles about it. Some
online, and in print. There's an
article
at Linux User which mentions me and St John's School.
Wired
has also got an article. I was offered an interview by The
Times Educational Supplement, of London, which I missed,
unfortunately. I've been asked a few questions by Silicon.com
for a forthcoming article. Finally yourselves have kindly
offered me this online interview so thanks for that.
OLinux: How can people help to improve this
iniciative?
Phil Jones:
Make Createusers support LDAP. The lightweight directory
access protocol looks like the future for large-scale Unix
account management. What's needed is a quick and easy way to
set up LDAP and add lots of users to it. I don't know how to
do that yet, in fact I don't know anything about LDAP.
Get schools to teach HTML in class. Every school should at
least have one machine, with Linux, that has everyone's
in-school home page on it. No, Frontpage does not count, they
should learn the code. Learning to code, with syntax, and
structure, is important.
Get schools to teach at least one programming language.
The language should be able to do graphics and sound,
ideally. It's fascinating to take control of the machine and
make it do exactly what you say. Things like loops, variables
and subroutines teach logical thinking. Everyone can learn a
little. Oh, and maybe have schools teach some database skills
as well.
OLinux: Here in Brazil, the Ferderal Government bought
200 thousand PCs for the public educacional sistem. This
machines were bought with public money. Unfortunatly they
pic Windows to run on this PCs and completly excluded Free
Software. What do you think about this decision (We, the
brazilian citzens, are realy apset)?
Phil Jones:
At $US40 each that'd make the United States US$8,000,000
richer. Just for the operating system. I don't know if it's
$US40 each but it's probably something like that. To put it
in perspective that's enough money to buy one quarter of a
new F-16 fighter plane. I think it's money unnecessarily
spent but I could imagine there has been some high level
politics going on. Funny I thought Brazil was going to choose
Linux for its schools.
I think the real cost will be raising children used to
computers without proper programming tools normally installed
and readily available. That means programming won't be in the
school day, which means building one's own software won't be
playground stuff, which means fewer adult Brazilian
programmers one day, which means less freedom for Brazil to
help itself, which may cost Brazil dear I guess.
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