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Press Releases :: $10,000 server software solution free: OSV makes offer to every Australian school
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$10,000 server software solution free: OSV makes offer to every Australian school | |
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Open Source Victoria (OSV) responds to a group of IT teachers who want a simple way to test and deploy Linux servers in schools. LiveLAMP is a bootable CD that turns a spare computer into a Linux development server for students to practice and publish programming exercises in over a dozen languages with hundreds of development tools. "IT administrators within the education sector can have difficulties adopting emerging platforms such as Linux," said OSV education spokesperson Donna Benjamin. "Time poor, they struggle just to keep up with the needs of a school IT network. Justifying the time to setup and maintain a professional development server on which student programmers experiment can be difficult. This is why we are developing the LiveLAMP instant Linux server solution." With the LiveLAMP project, OSV aims to do for Linux application and database servers what Knoppix has done for desktops. LiveLAMP can turn any PC into an instant server capable of supporting up to 1,000 students doing work on over a dozen programming languages and hundreds of development tools. Technologies covered include PHP, Python, Perl, MySQL, Ruby, PostgreSQL, C++, C, Pascal, Fortran, CVS, Apache, Lex/Yacc, text editing, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, XML and many more. LiveLAMP will fully integrate with their existing Windows, Apple or Linux systems. OSV estimates that purchasing proprietary versions of this software for 1000 students and teachers would cost each school over $10,000 if they had to pay for it. "Secondary school teachers who want to deploy Linux in their IT labs often find that their IT staff "Don't Do Linux". With the LiveLAMP CD, we've made the process absolutely painless. With the CD in hand a teacher just needs to find a surplus PC. To run the LiveLAMP server, simply insert the CD-ROM into the PC and press reset. A minute later, the LiveLAMP system has created 1,000 student accounts on that PC and is now running as a server. All the programs run from the CD. Students can log in and start using the programming tools. That surplus PC then becomes a Live Linux server for the other machines in the lab," continued Benjamin. Con Zymaris from OSV leads the LiveLAMP development effort. He has over 20 years experience in working with open source technologies. Zymaris is enthusiastic about this project. He notes that one of the few remaining hurdles that Linux and open source technologies face in the marketplace is a lack of user familiarity. "With the LiveLAMP project, we hope to make it a trivial step for any school anywhere to trial a Linux server which comes with most of the major programming languages and tools used by industry. We are therefore simultaneously introducing new users to Linux as well as introducing exciting and powerful computer technologies to school kids. Both will help grow Australia's ICT skills-base while improving kids' education." OSV is funding the development of the LiveLAMP CD and will facilitate its distribution as a downloadable ISO image and through peer-to-peer file sharing networks. Giving more students the opportunity to develop their computing skills by accessing open source industry tools is an investment in tomorrow's ICT community. Releasing LiveLAMP under an Open Source Licence means that anyone, not just schools, can harness the opportunities it presents. Open Source Victoria would like to thank the Victorian Government for the funding which makes projects like LiveLAMP possible. The LiveLAMP project is scheduled to deliver its first release candidate in July 2005. - - - About Open Source Victoria Open Source Victoria is an Industry Cluster consisting of over 60 Victorian firms and developers which provide services and technology related to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS.) Open Source Victoria offers marketing, advocacy and information referral services, and aims to raise the profile of FOSS in Victoria and work with other similar organisations across Australia. http://www.osv.org.au/ Contact: Con Zymaris Phone: 03 9621 2377 Fax: 03 9621 2477 Email: conz@cyber.com.au |
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