- The computers had been well used and they were both still working. So much so that the health officer complained (in the nicest possible manner) that she had trouble getting staff out of the computer room. :D
- There was a local 'IT guy' who had installed WinXP on one of the computers resulting in a Win2K - WinXP dual boot. How much does one have to love Windows to actually have a Win2K/WinXP dual boot?! But, he had managed to retain the e-library in the process. Cooool!!!
26 Oct 2008
Wondogenet - the first Ubuntu Install
25 Oct 2008
Eureka - Using Ubuntu Repos from USB HDD
And, then a stroke of complete brilliance - okok, a slight exaggeration. Nonetheless, this is uber-cool for a linux noob. Treat the repos folder on the USB HDD as a webfolder and Ubuntu will think it is downloading from the network. XAMPP and my linux books to the rescue. I had already installed XAMPP on my laptop.
Create a new folder in htdocs to serve as container for repos
sudo mkdir /opt/lampp/htdocs/ubuntu
Did I want to copy 28GB of data on to this folder...naah. Certainly not on to the PCs at the health centre. The next command does the trick by binding the folder on the USB HDD to the folder on the local webserver.
sudo mount --bind /media/USBHDD/ubuntu /opt/lampp/htdocs/ubuntu
Let me test this out.
sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start
Let's see what my own Ubuntu repository looks like.
The next thing to do was to test Synaptic - just for the pleasure of seeing it work. But before that, I edited sources.list to point to the new repository.
sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources_orig.list sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
I deleted all the entries and added these new ones.
deb http://localhost/ubuntu/ hardy main universe restricted multiverse deb http://localhost/ubuntu/ hardy-security universe main multiverse restricted deb http://localhost/ubuntu/ hardy-updates universe main multiverse restricted deb http://localhost/ubuntu/ hardy-backports universe main multiverse restricted
And, finally making sure that everything works.
sudo apt-get update
Let me try installing Gnochm, a utility to view .chm files (one of my e-learning materials was in this format - don't ask!).
sudo apt-get install gnochm
After opening and closing Synaptic and restarting my laptop and doing this all from scratch again (just to be sure) I went to sleep. Time to test this out in Wondogenet.
19 Oct 2008
Arguments for (and against) Ubuntu
The second reason is the lack of IT skills or support in the places that these computers are installed. Their knowledge of any environment (Windows or Linux) was extremely limited. For many of the staff at these health centres the computers that I had installed last year was their first and only exposure to IT! They had nothing to lose or unlearn/relearn with Ubuntu. The learning curve would be similar with Windows or Ubuntu. And, with non-existent local technical support, a broken system was a broken system, be it Windows or Ubuntu.
Thirdly, I had decided to present all the content through a web browser. Apart from a few minor multimedia compatibility issues, the operating system should make no difference. Most of these issues are fixable.
All of the above are really reasons for 'why not Ubuntu'. However, there were several reasons why I feel Ubuntu may actually be better for this scenario.
As I described in an earlier post, the Windows environment in Ethiopia is riddled with viruses and other malware. Ubuntu would be relatively safe from these and hopefully remain secure.
It is exceedingly easy to corrupt a Win2K system. Restricting a user meant creating user accounts and such, for which I had no time last year. All installs allowed the default 'administrator' access - a recipe for disaster. However, Ubuntu's default user has no admin privileges and all administrative tasks require a password. This by itself is a deterrent and easy to teach - if the computer asks for a password, don't do it!!! Except, of course when you logon!
Ubuntu is (and will be) free. This has significant cost implications for us. With Win2K obsolete and WinXP nearly there, I need a dependable platform that I know will remain free/cheap for the foreseeable future. As these computers were old, I always have the option of switching over to an alternate lightweight distro should Ubuntu get too bloated in future.