Today, coming in out of the cold after driving through light sleet from San Antonio, I caught the tail end of Mark Cockrell’s presentation on FOG, a free computer cloning solution. Although I missed most of his presentation, he was kind enough to show me a few things.
In the conversation that resulted, Mark pointed out that Pearson’s TestNAV is being served up to 150 old computers via Linux Terminal Services, an astonishing accomplishment when you consider he only paid about $5000 for the 150 old computers and they are running the latest and greatest software compatible with required state testing.
Also be sure to read Mark’s recent posting–Between a Rock and an Open Place–about Imitative vs Innovative aspects of free software vs other common operating systems (like Mac OS). Some of the key points that jumped out at me from that post and provide insight into Mark’s creativity:
- When people say that Open Source projects are imitative, they’re generally referring to applications on the desktop.
- Open Source projects have been innovating and creating and pushing the frontiers of the server room since the beginning.
And that is exactly what Mark is doing with this…creating and pushing the frontiers of what we can do in schools, saving taxpayer dollars while “getting it done.” Kudos, Mark!
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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure
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