Like many other people, our church and, more importantly, our Christian school, ran the Windows operating system on all computers. We have about 15 computers in classrooms in addition to our computer lab of 25 computers. They were not the greatest computers to begin with – Pentium 3, 8GB HDD, 64-128 Mb of RAM – but that soon changed. We were given a large donation of 65 Dell Optiplex GX260s one year ago. Still not up to today’s standards, but a huge improvement over what we had and adequate for our current needs.
The problem
We had a problem, however, in our licensing. A number of years ago we purchased a 100-volume license for Windows 2000. This would still be good for our new(er) machines, but Windows 2000 is terribly outdated and unsupported. It then became a matter of stewardship. Should we outlay a large sum of money for XP which would soon be replaced by Windows 7? Sure, the hardware cannot handle 7, but it would eventually be replaced and the cycle would start again. We are a small ministry, not a large corporation that can afford to keep up with the costs and offer our students a quality education at the same time.
One of our computers running Ubuntu showing a 3d desktop cube
Our solution
There had to be a responsible alternative. And there was. The answer was found in the Ubuntu Linux operating system. Now, there are many variations (distributions) of Linux, but I have been using Ubuntu since 2006 on my personal computers.
So what is Ubuntu and why was it the solution to our problem? To quote from their website, “Ubuntu is an operating system built by a worldwide team of expert developers. It contains all the applications you need: a web browser, office suite, media apps, instant messaging and much more. Ubuntu is an open-source alternative to Windows and Office.”
Ubuntu resolved our situation in the following ways:
Cost
This is the most obvious benefit – Ubuntu is free. It does not cost anything but the time to download it, burn it to a CD and install it. The installation is straightforward and simple. It took my about 20 minutes to completely format and install for one machine. I could then clone that machine and copy it to others – or since CDs are so cheap, I was able to burn and install multiple copies at once.
This is a large part of where stewardship came in. With the large cost of licensing no longer an issue, we are now able to save that money and begin investing in good hardware. We are now at a place where we can move forward instead of trying to keep our heads above water.
Freedom
We now have the ability to use our machines in whatever way is most beneficial. When I want to install a new program I type in a simple command – aptitude install name of program and it is done. The best thing about the freedom with the software is that I am not limited by licenses in the ability to do good to my neighbor.
We can also run many Windows programs directly on these computers through an application layer called WINE. We do this for our Rosetta Stone Online Language Learning program that our students use for foreign language. We run the Windows version of Firefox so that the microphone is recognized and supported. We could run MS Office 2003 which we have licenses for, but there is no need to do that since Ubuntu comes with OpenOffice.org, a compatible office suite.
Security
Linux is inherently a very secure operating system, but the open-source model on which it, and other software is built, keeps it secure. Anyone can look into the source, find a bug and fix it. With software under a constant peer-review, errors and bugs are constantly being fixed and new features implemented. Although stable, none of it ever becomes stable. As a system administrator, I love the feeling that I am working with data and systems that are rock-solid. By the way, we don’t run anti-virus software on these computers because Linux is currently (virtually) impervious to viruses.
Ease of use
Wait, isn’t Linux that for super-geeks? In fact, in many ways Linux is extremely easy to use. When students arrived on the first day of school, they were excited that the old CRT monitors were replaced with new 15″ LCD monitors. They intuitively found where applications were (especially the games) and were able to get right to work. In fact, our only problems this year have been hardware-related issues.
Accountability
Students just can’t seem to get away with much when I can constantly monitor their desktops with iTalc, fix problems with ssh, and check logs easily. I don’t play “Big Brother” with them, but they understand that we are trying to keep them accountable and helps foster an atmosphere of responsibility.
Support
I was very comfortable using Linux on the desktop, but I had many questions when implementing Linux in our lab. My questions were posted at ubuntuforums.org and quickly answered. The people were very friendly and helpful. There was even one gentleman who realized I was close in proximity and called me on the phone to walk me through some things. He offered to come over, but I had my problem solved by then. The Linux support was so good, they even helped me with problems on the Windows machines we had left! We haven’t yet had need of paid-for support, but I know it is always there as an option.
Linux is not for every person or ministry, but I encourage you to consider it. At the very least, consider implementing open-source solutions in your ministry. For most proprietary, paid-for applications there are free open-source alternatives – no matter what operating system you use. For us, the benefits were obvious: we have future-proofed our computer lab by not being locked into a vicious licensing cycle, we can use the money we saved on software and concentrate on upgrading our hardware, and we now teach our students concepts about technology instead of particular applications so that they can benefit no matter what college or career they enter after graduation.
Has Linux or other open-source software been beneficial for you or your ministry? Do you have further questions regarding our switch? Leave any comments, questions, or criticisms in the comments below!
Did you enjoy this article? Please subscribe to my feed to get new updates!
{ 6 trackbacks }
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
Congrats.
I’ve done something pretty similar but with Debian&KDE instead of Ubuntu-Gnome.
I appreciate many things that have come from KDE, and leaned towards either Kubuntu or Fedora, but they did not run as well on these computers. That coupled with my lack of familiarity swung me to Ubuntu. As I learn more about Ubuntu, I become more interested in other distributions and use a fair number of them for different purposes.
, we can use the money we saved on software and concentrate on upgrading our hardware,
Don’t forget to collaborate with some project or make a donation to your fav project or distribution.
Thank you for the suggestion. Making donations/contributions is something I do personally, but it is also a good to teach students to give back. I hope to put a focus in our computer program on collaboration and contributing back to projects that make a difference. This really applies to more than just software though, doesn’t it?
Great story indeed.
Free software has something inherently moral. It belongs to humanity, to all of us.
I wonder why FOSS is not more widely used in churches and religious institutions. But thank you for showing the way!
By the way, you may want to check my guide to Ubuntu – though you probably know more than me
http://www.johannes-eva.net/index.php?page=2009_10_useful_ubuntu_guide_karmic
All the best,
Johannes
I think a large part of it not being used in churches is ignorance. Everyone else uses (fill-in-the-blank) so why shouldn’t we? That was the biggest battle in getting others to see the value in open-source solutions in our ministry.
“Free software has something inherently moral. It belongs to humanity, to all of us. I wonder why FOSS is not more widely used in churches and religious institutions”
Partly this may happen because things like Ubuntu Christian Edition do little more, in my opinion, than creating confusions and even barriers: “The goal of Ubuntu Christian Edition is to bring the power and security of Ubuntu to Christians. ”
Uh? The goal (for who cares about this, of course) is to make also Christians understand that every free software is, as Johannes said, inherently moral, even in its standard edition. The goal is to make christians understand than they may have even MORE reasons than others to use _standard_ free software.
I fear that slapping a few custom icons and wallpapers on a distro and presenting it with slogans like the one above (from the UCE home page) can be easily interpreted as saying that standard FOSS isn’t good enough for Christians, that they have to “polish” vanilla FOSS to make it worth of their attention.
Whereas the main issue is, as Johannes rightly says, that ALL Free Software plus, if I may add, open knowledge and smart usage of digital media, is inherently moral. This is the way I advocate FOSS among Catholics. To see what I mean, you are welcome to read these two pages, because I am convinced that most of their content is valid without any issue for all Christians and, I guess, for most religious people in general:
http://www.eleutheros.org/en/documents/manifesto/
http://stop.zona-m.net/node/72
Marco
Those are interisting articles. Thank you for sharing. While I do not agree with Catholicism, many points you make are valid despite religous views.
Excuse me. Inherently moral? Would you then imply that using proprietary software is immoral?
@Yonah
We’re saying that the masters over proprietary software are committing a socially immoral action: they seduce users into exchanging their freedom for permission to use the proprietary software. People are traditionally taught accept this exchange as normal. The fact is though, that masters hold real power over society that accept this exchange. This power should not exist for the sake of freedom. Free software is the moral solution to the social problem of proprietary software.
A simple but perfect analogy that should make you understand the difference.
FOSS is like generous soul that keeps on giving. Proprietary software is like greedy soul that keeps on robbing.
As I mentioned, proprietary software really does limit my ability to help others and helping others is a major part of my life!
You can also try the Ubuntu Christian Edition :
http://www.ubuntuce.com/
Keep up your good work!
I love your cause and If I knew I lived near to you I would help you in a heart beat. and this is saying a lot for me mainly because I am an atheist. Before anyone gets all bent out of shape I want to demonstrate the strength of open source and the common ground it provides people. As I states my religious views (or lack there of) are in direct conflict with yours. The differences we have however does not seem as important as the goal we share though, Teaching our youth and providing charitable services utilizing open source is something I can get behind!
so in short, helping with this would probably be one of only a few reasons I would ever step foot in a house of worship and under the circumstances I would love to do so… and If I’m right about the spirit of the community you would be just as happy to have me there in spite of our major differences.
Am I right?
Have you heard of ubuntu Christian Edition? ubuntuce.com
While I have nothing against Ubuntu Christian Edition, it is not necessarily ideal for our situation. Xiphos and WINE are easy installs and we currently use Sonicwall for a content filter. For our situation, there really isn’t much of an advantage to UCE.
Gabriel, I see that you have a Sonicwall in your setup and I am wondering if you are seeing or had to do anything special with the updating of your Ubuntu machines.
Specifically we are seeing that when we go to update(aptitude from the terminal) that the update process starts really fast but then is throttled down over and over again until it hits about 9bytes/sec. Yes bytes! I have taken the load balancer out of the equation and the cable modem, both have been replaced. I have also narrowed it down to only Linux updates from behind the Sonicwall. So I assume it is the way that Aptitude is requesting the downloads or the way that the Sonicwall is trying to push them out. Any insight is greatly appreciated!
Thank you!
We have not had any issues with Sonicwall and ubuntu other than it being a pain to set up VPN. One thing I like to make sure I do as far as updates in ubuntu goes is to make sure I am using a nearby mirror in my sources. I’m not sure how you are setup, but that may be part of the issue.
I also tried selecting a closer mirror, no luck. It only seems to show its darkside when the installed Linux distribution is Ubuntu or Debian(APT based) as right now I am using Centos(RHEL) and all seems to be moving along well. I would love to be able to switch over to Ubuntu as I feel it is a better fit for this area. Hopefully this will come up in a search and someone will have the anwer!
It seems as if for your situation a major benefit which you describe but do not enumerate is control–control over obsolescence, for instance. With Ubuntu, you can decide readily for yourself what version you wish to use based on your needs, and change your mind at any time (or change easily enough to some other Linux distributor if Ubuntu stops satisfying you). You can buy hardware based on your needs and fit the software to it. With Windows, your decisions about software and hardware constrain each other and are difficult to change in the light of changing circumstances. Your decisions on software licenses trap you and limit your further choices.
You are absolutely correct. The combination of control and choice (freedom) is what it all comes down to. We now have the authority to make our own decisions. This is especially helpful in a place where we must spend each dollar wisely.
Nice blog post Gabriel. Indeed, the initial step of convincing others to use open source software in schools, where many would just use is the hardest one to overcome. I know of a friend who’s a systems administrator of a small technical school, who set up LTSP to run the school’s more than 50 computer systems as thin clients – and as far as I gather – it’s still running pretty well (he set that up 2 years ago). It’s just wonderful seeing actual systems proven running and viable.
Thank you for the comment. You are right – after I convinced others to get on board, it has been rather smooth sailing!
Great post. This showcases the benefits of using linux so clearly. Congrats.
Thank you! I was really hoping that the message would be clearly understood.
In 2003 a local rural church was building their first building. I provided a network and their first computers. All based on Linux. One major upgrade in 2005 and another going on now. There hasn’t yet been any major issues. None from failures of Linux. Since this is all part-time volunteer work and paid for out of my pocket, it was definitely the right decision.
I am always glad to hear of places where Linux has been helpful in other ministries. It is good to know you are not alone in what you are trying to accomplish.
Open Source is a unifying factor. Linux user since 1997. With Ubuntu I’ve seen big steps forward on the desktop. We use it in so many ways! Not really surprised at it’s adoption anymore since it’s so good. In fact Microsoft has mentioned Ubuntu as a competitive force in last years financial statements.
Ubuntu grows without marketing. Awesome.
It is interesting that Microsoft would mention Ubuntu as competition. Do you have a source for that? I would be interested in having that to show others that question if Linux is really viable.
We have been using linux in our church for some time. We are running Mandriva/KDE on all of our machines.
Here is a quick link to our churches software page. ( http://www.bonnersferryfmc.com/tech.htm )
We use it for our firewall/gateway, our projector presentations, desktop and office use, audio/video processing. Everything.
OpenSong is great for the morning worship lyrics and scripture presentation. We use Audacity and kdenlive for video and audio processing for the internet. We have several computers in out youth center, and all are sent through a dansguardian filter to keep the internet safe and clean for them.
Linux is great because of the cost, ease of use, and the ability to use it and scale it for any application you need. And the stability, no viruses, no hassle, just install it, set it up and use it for years. We’ll never go back.
Thanks for the link. We don’t use a projector for songs as we use traditional hymnals, but Audacity is something, like you, that I use quite often!
really interesting tactical. It may be useful in some case because I’m also working to migrate from Windows to Linux (openSUSE) for the whole Ministry of Information in my country. Thank.
thelifeandwork´s last blog ..Add translation tools to your website/blog