[FSF India] [ARTICLE] Linux in Education
Raj Singh
fsf-india@gnu.org.in
Mon, 6 Aug 2001 15:02:50 +0530 (IST)
Troubleshooters.Com Presents
Troubleshooting Professional Magazine
Volume 3, Issue 4, April 1999
The Education Revolution
Copyright (C) 1999 by Steve Litt.
_________________________________________________________________
Editors Desk
What a difference a decade makes. In April 1989 the 386 chip was three
years old, and was just getting to a price point affordable for individual
computer users. 286 technology had been around for seven years, and you
could still buy a new 286 computer. And if you used a PC compatible, you
had DOS. Sure, it was version 5, but it was almost identical to the DOS
3.1 you'd used in 1984. PC Programmers used teen-age C or the baby on the
block, five year old Dbase III. You could take a year or two to learn a
computer language, and spend a year or two writing the program.
You had to be a genius to access the internet, and even then you still had
to be at a major university or the military. And unless you were trying to
reproduce Robert Morris' Internet Worm virus that had appeared the year
before, why would you even want to get on the internet? And so we
continued on our leisurely path, oblivious to the wildly accelerating
technological changes the 90's would bring.
Now technologies come and go in two years. Time to market has shrunk to
months or weeks. The successful companies and technologists have shrunk
their learning times to days or weeks. College and trade school don't cut
it. Even those week long training courses can't do the job. New learning
methods are needed. Luckily, free software, the Internet, and the
documentation of the Rapid Learning process allow us to keep up.
This issue of Troubleshooting Professional Magazine is devoted to the
Education Revolution. We've even given the articles political names.
After all, learning is the most vital component of our careers, and
ultimately our corporations and our nations. So kick back and relax as you
read this issue. And remember, if you're a Troubleshooter, this is your
magazine. Enjoy!
Rapid Learning: A Key to Universal Education
If you hang out with leading edge technologists long enough, you see they
all use similar learning techniques. They use the 'net, trade mags and
their acquaintences to learn the terminology and its definitions. Armed
with that, they achieve a theoretical understanding. They then do
incremental/differential learning, often using free software (free as in
speech) to verify their understanding and learn more. All of this is done
within the context of their work, not separate from it. They've mastered
the technology long before their co-workers have gotten clearance to take
the course. They make the big bucks.
I'm trying very hard to document this process, which I've dubbed Rapid
Learning. I'm ten percent done with my new book, "Rapid Learning: Secret
Weapon of the Successful Technologist". It looks like it will weigh in at
42 chapters and a little over 200 pages. I hope to have it available for
sale in about a month, assuming more pressing projects don't interfere.
Using Rapid Learning, a technologist can learn new technologies quicker,
cheaper, and easier than their counterparts taking training, trade school,
or college. Rapid Learning has been used for decades, but the advent of
the Internet as a research tool and free software for setting up a kitchen
table lab have supercharged Rapid Learning's advantages.
The de-facto class restrictions on technical education are crumbling.
Steve Litt is the author of the upcoming book "Rapid Learning: Secret
Weapon of the Successful Technologist".
Power to the People
Some cynical days I wonder if this whole thing is just class warfare.
"Buffy, we simply cannot allow these lower classes to program. They work
so cheap the profession will be ruined".
"Precisely, Skip. We must make sure the lower classes have no contact with
programming. Expensive compilers, expensive computers, and just in case
some rif-raf gets his hands on one, we'll require a $100,000.00 college
education, and make sure a computer training lab costs six figures.
Remember your first computer lab? The minicomputer cost nearly a hundred
thousand, with each terminal $500. Or, if it was later, maybe an $8000.00
PC server with a $4000.00 NOS (Netware) and each workstation costing
$2000.00. But that wasn't the big thing. The big thing was the software.
Compilers were probably $100.00 to $500.00 per seat. And the big-iron
compilers like Cobol -- if you have to ask you can't afford it. And
remember the cost of the DBMS? That was sure to keep the small entrapeneur
out of the game. Any way you looked at it, setting up a computer lab would
set you back over $60,000.00 -- probably much more.
If there are such a Buffy and Skip, they're certainly tearing their hair
out today. Anyone with a spare two hundred square feet can set up a
respectable computer lab for less than a good used car -- maybe a lot
less. Let's start with buying everything new:
Item Nos. Unit Price Total Cost
Server OS 1 $49.00 $50.00
Desktop OS 1 $49.00 $50.00
Server 1 $2000.00 $2000.00
Client PCs 15 $600.00 $9000.00
8 port Hubs 2 $200.00 $400.00
Network Cabling n/a home made $100.00
Server Software:
DNS, Sendmail, Proxy Server, FTP Server, Web Server, Print Server, ....
0.0 0.0
Educational Software:
(GNU) C compiler 15 0.0 0.0
(GNU) C++ compiler 15 0.0 0.0
Perl Interpreter 15 0.0 0.0
Python Interpreter 15 0.0 0.0
Tcl/TK Interpreter 15 0.0 0.0
Java 15 0.0 0.0
(PostgreSQL) DBMS 15 0.0 0.0
(DBI) Middleware 15 0.0 0.0
(PHP) Web App RAD 15 0.0 0.0
Web Authoring Tool 15 0.0 0.0
(GIMP) Graphics SW 15 0.0 0.0
Web Browser 15 0.0 0.0
Text Editors 15 0.0 0.0
(Pine) Email Read 15 0.0 0.0
So that's it. For $11,600.00 anybody can set up a 15 workstation computer
lab. But wait. There's more. If 15 people decide to set up the lab for
themselves, and each brings an old, Linux GUI capable computer (low grade
Pentium with 32Meg of ram, 1 gig disk), and one person contributes a
server (low grade Pentium, 32 meg of ram, 6.4 Gig drive), the cost goes
down to $600.00. That's not each, mind you. That's divided among the
fifteen. That's right, $40.00 each.
What do they get for the money? Here are the classes that can be offered:
Programming 101: Algorithms (Python)
Programming 102: OOP (Python)
Intro to C
Intermediate C
Advanced C
OS Programming in C
Driver Writing in C
Linux Internals in C
TCP/IP Programming in C
Basic Network Configuration
Intermediate Network Configuration
Network Design and Architecture
Network Troubleshooting
DNS Configuration
Web Host Configuration
Email Server Configuration
Advanced Webmastering
Intro to C++
Intermediate C++
Advanced C++
Web Design (Netscape Composer, GIMP)
Advanced Web Graphics (GIMP)
Intro to Web Programming (Perl)
Web Forms Programming (Perl)
Database Web Programming (Perl, PHP, PostgreSQL)
Programming for Electronic Commerce (Perl, PHP, PostgreSQL)
So just in case it isn't clear, fifteen people without money for college
can get together, pony up a PC each and less than $50.00 each, $2.00 each
per month for an internet connection (which they can share simultaneously
real-time via Linux IP-masquerading). For that tiny investment they'll
gain theoretical and hands-on mastery of C, C++, Web authoring, Web
applications, Web database applications, Electronic Commerce, network
administration, network troubleshooting, network architecture,
webmastering.
Who will teach the classes? Using Rapid Learning techniques, they can
teach themselves. Then pass on the information in the form of Rapid
Teaching tutorials. Those original 15 can charge ten percent of university
prices, and recoup their investment in a year. They can expand and teach
thousands of folks unable to afford a college education.
Buffy and Skip, like it or not you have some serious competition.
Viva La Revolucion
Nowhere is the education revolution stronger than in Mexico. Their Scholar
Net program is installing a nationwide network of computer labs using free
software including Linux and Gnome. Over the next few years, they will be
installing 140,000 computer labs (not computers -- labs) at a rate of
20-35,000 per year. These students will have all the advantages enumerated
in the previous article. If this sounds unbelievable, I've reprinted the
words of the Scholar Net project head, Arturo Espinosa Aldama.
From the Horse's Mouth
============================
>From arturo@estadistica.unam.mx Thu Oct 29 21:46:11 1998
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 13:54:25 -0600 (CST)
From: Arturo Espinosa Aldama <arturo@estadistica.unam.mx>
To: gnome-list@gnome.org, gnome-hackers@gnome.org
Subject: Mexico's Educative System Goes for GNU/Linux + GNOME
Greetings, beloved GNOME users and developers.
I work as the project leader of the "Scholar Net", a program that aims to
bring computers and the net to every elementary and mid-level school in
Mexico. We expect to install from 20 to 35 thousand labs per year to a
total of 140,000 centers in the next five years.
Due to matters of cost, reliability and configurability, we plan to use
GNU/Linux to replace the proprietary server options and, now thanks to
GNOME, the proprietary desktop application options.
We will develop GNOME to a point where we can get a useful and friendly
enough desktop for the elementary and high school student. There are some
aspects of GNOME, such as uniformity, Spanish translation, bug fixing and
application development which we will address to achieve this.
At an average of 20 users per machine, and being all of them school
children and teachers, GNU/Linux will become, at the long term, a major
influence in Mexico. In the short term, GNOME will get an additional
impulse from us and those who will contribute following our guidelines,
and GNU/Linux will prove to be a real-world option for the end user.
For further information and details on the Scholar Net and, specially for
GNOME developers, on how to contribute to GNOME for us to arrive to
deployment stage, please contact Arturo Espinosa .
Arturo Espinosa Aldama
Project Leader
Academic Services Coordination
National Autonomous University of Mexico
The text above may be copied in any way provided that it stays with this
paragraph and unmodified.
=============================
Note: The original source URL of this document is contained in the URL's
section of this magazine.
My Fellow Americans
My fellow Americans, we're in another race every bit as vital as the space
race of the 1960's. Once again it's time to get moving. The race is no
longer to the moon, but instead to technological dominance. Our competitor
is no longer the Soviet Union, but instead every nation on earth. The
threat is no longer nuclear obliteration, but technological and economic
obliteration.
Our neighbors to the south are attacking this challenge head on. Mexico
is installing 140,000 computer labs using the best (but not the most
expensive) technology available. Soon they will field a fleet of millions
of superiorly trained technologists. Mexico has taken a page from
America's pioneering spirit. Free thinking, they went with the right
choice, not the politically expediant one. They worked to get results.
They stood up for their children.
Contrast this with America's response. We hesitate over lab installation
because it's too "expensive". Expensive because we pay per-seat licenses.
Expensive because Windows desktops requires more expensive hardware.
Expensive because NT Server is *fabulously* expensive. Expensive because
Windows requires constant attention to keep running. Our children languish
while Microsoft stockholders get rich.
My fellow Americans, the choice is ours. We can change course to the
better plan instituted by Mexico, continuing our leadership position well
into the next century. Or we can remain in our present comfort zone,
making Microsoft stockholders rich while our children receive inferior
educations and our nation's technological leadership fades.
I ask you to follow Mexico's lead. Stand up for our children. Stand up for
our nation. Use free software in our schools.
Fellow Americans, my critics will tell you there will always be work for
Americans who want to work. They are absolutely correct. The question
before us today is whether that work will be charting the worlds
technological course, rather than serving at resorts, hotels, gas stations
and restaraunts, hoping we'll be tipped in Pesos.
Richard Stallman, Architect of the Revolution
In 1984 Richard Stallman wrote the GNU Manifesto, which advocated free
software, specifically a free UNIX workalike. In the Manifesto, Stallman
prophetically described the process of getting this to happen, including
ideas in licensing (must pass on source and all rights to the receiver,
etc). In 1991 he copyrighted the GNU General Public License (otherwise
known as GPL). That license provided a framework allowing a developer to
guarantee that his work would never be co-opted or subverted by an
unscrupulous corporation. Software authors began to license their software
using GPL.
It worked. Linus Torvalds and his crew wrote the Linux kernal, combined it
with many of the already developed GNU utilities, to come up with the
GNU/Linux operating system, which was absolutely free to anyone. Other
software followed.
Others started licensing software under non-GPL licenses that nevertheless
guaranteed source availability, ability to modify, and passing on of
rights. Others had licenses that didn't do all that, but managed to make
the product free and standard. And now you can get, absolutely free of
charge, the GNU/Linux OS, Netscape browser and authoring tool, GIMP
graphic software, Apache web server, sendmail email server, GNU C and C++
compilers, Python, Perl and Tcl interpreters, Java, and several editors.
Or, if you don't want to download them, you can purchase them for as
little as $1.99 plus shipping.
Much of the Internet runs off these free tools, especially Apache. And the
web can replace any 30 technical textbooks, and it's always up to date.
This has cut the cost of setting up a computer lab or computer school by a
factor of 10 or more. Once only the upper middle and upper classes could
get an excellent computer education. Now almost anyone can do it.
Richard Stallman: hero or rabble rouser? I guess the answer depends on
whether you're a normal working person, or the president of an expensive
and elite university.
Linux Log: The Redmond Tea Party
(Linux Log is now a regular column in Troubleshooting Professional
Magazine. Each month we'll explore a facet of Linux as it relates to that
month's theme).
Few grudge anyone the right to make an honest living. I haven't heard one
person question the cost of (Borland) Turbo Pascal or Turbo C. Few
objected to the price of the DOS or Windows operating systems. There were
some problems with Mac pricing, but those wanting a cheaper product simply
bought one.
Trouble is, sooner or later certain commercial outfits get greedy. I don't
know whether they forgot history and then repeated it, or whether they
felt the lessons learned didn't apply. But these commercial outfits (and
it wasn't just Microsoft) gouged us blind. The insane prices and even
crazier licensing provisions erected an entry barrier few could penetrate.
So we went elsewhere. To Linux, to free software in general. And we found
it to be better.
So we snuck in the corporate back door with superior free software
systems, and got free software on the corporate agenda. It's humorous that
now the commercial biggies find themselves subject the the same type of
FUD they used to dish out. "I'm not buying the Microsoft product -- a
superior free software product is expected any time now". The Mexican
government is building a nationwide computer lab network using Linux and
Gnome. It hasn't happened yet in the US, but it will. Throngs march on
Redmond to dump not tea but Windows, not into Boston Harbor but into the
Microsoft campus.
I predict that Windows 2000 will fail miserably, as the masses shift to
the technically superior, and probably by that time more user friendly,
Linux. The other gouge and grab software outfits will get theirs soon
after.
Let's hope Caldera, Slackware, SuSe, Pacific HiTech (TurboLinux), Red Hat,
Star, Corel and Applix learn from their predecessors' mistakes.
URLs Mentioned in this Issue
* http://www.troubleshooters.com: Steve Litt's website,
Troubleshooters.Com.
* http://www.troubleshooters.com/umenu: The website for the
Universal Menu System Open Source Project
* http://www.troubleshooters.com/umenu/download/index.htm: The
download site for the (free, Open Source) Universal Menu System
(this version works only on Linux, but upcoming versions will work
with Windows and with UNIX).
* http://luthien.nuclecu.unam.mx/~arturo/scholar/: Mexico's Scholar
Net program, an installation of 140,000 computer labs throughout
Mexico.
* http://www.gnu.org/people/rms.html: Richard Stallman's home page.
* http://www.calderasystems.com: Caldera's OpenLinux home page.
* http://www.suse.com: SuSe Linux distro home page.
* http://www.Slackware.com: Official home of the Slackware Linux
project.
* http://www.turbolinux.com: Website of Pacific HiTech, makers of
the TurboLinux distro.
* http://www.redhat.com: Home of Red Hat Software, makers of the Red
Hat Linux distro.
* http://linux.corel.com/: Corel's Linux product website.
* http://www.applix.com/appware/linux/index.htm: Applixware for Linux.
* http://www.microsoft.com: The guys who make Windows NT, a very
nice server OS that would be as good as Linux if it was faster and
more reliable.
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