Daily Cup of Tech

Being a Technology Director can sometimes be a tricky job. The budget is nonexistent and trying to keep a wasteland of old machines alive is sometimes impossible. Well, I turned to a few open source solutions to help.

One that most people have heard of is OpenOffice. We have three computer labs with 20 computers each, 25 teacher computers, five administrative staff computers, and three small mobile labs with 10 laptops each. Purchasing that many copies of Office 2007 doesn’t really fit into my budget. Starting with the 2006-2007 school year, we transitioned to OpenOffice in all but one computer lab. The benefits that we have received are numerous. The teachers were all given copies to give to their students. Some students may not be able to afford purchasing MS Office, so giving them a free alternative that they use at school and home is a great way for the students to use the same software in both places.

Another great open source tool is FreeNAS. FreeNAS is a free Network Attached Storage. I found out about it, on this very blog. After reading the multitude of articles featuring this great piece of software, I excitedly visited my computer graveyard. I had 10 to 15 old machines laying around and picked the best two. Then I purchased two 250 gig drives and installed one into each machine. I now use these NAS devices for storage of student profiles, documents, and backups. The software installed onto both systems is a snap to install and includes web-based administration. Both machines sit headless in different parts of the school.

The last open source program that I use is actually a bunch of open source programs combined into one package. K12TSP is the K12 Linux Terminal Server. Basically, install it one beefy server, and it will then serve several diskless thin clients. This project has been installed in many schools across the country. It includes programs such as OpenOffice, Gimp, K-Office, Abiword, Firefox, Acrobat Reader, Gnome, and KDE. My K12TSP lab include 15 laptops that were basically useless, but could boot from the NIC. I gave it a shot, and voila, I had 15 working computers complete with sound.

Overall, my exposure to Open Source software has been great. Above is just a few of the programs that I like. I am positive there are projects that I have not found that would benefit my network. There is a bunch of people out there that can do amazing things with programs. I am not a programmer, but I appreciate those that are.

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The list of my daily visited blogs is endless. I have the usual suspects like Engadget , but here are some useful ones that you may not know of.

OgasaWalrus.com
Todd Ogasawara hosts a great blog for Windows and Mac freeware/open source. He updates it on a daily basis if not more. He lists suggestions for great software and talks about common bugs and happenings in the open source world.

The programs include Email apps, productivity apps, games, utilities, and developer tools. It is always interesting to see how many programs that are out there that I had no idea existed. The open source community does some amazing things.

Computer Performance
The theme of the site is ‘Getting you started, setting you on the right road’. This site offers a plethora of information, including Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Exchange 2003, Sharepoint, Scripts, and the upcoming Windows Server ‘Longhorn’. When I first found this site, I was dumbfounded at how much information the author has put into this site. He goes above and beyond to explain exactly how things work and how to implement them for your situation.

Sysinternals
Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell started their blog (www.sysinternals.com) to help Advanced Users, IT Pros, and developers become more efficient. They did this by offering freeware and advice. In July of 2006 they were bought by Microsoft. They still offer the same great utilities that were offered before, but now with Microsoft backing (which may or may not be a good thing). Here is few of the categories of free utilities available:

• File and Disk
• Networking
• Process Utilities
• Security
• System
• Forums for Q&A

Most of the programs are small and only do one thing, but there quite a few of them. They are always adding, so head over there and check it out!

These are just three of my favorites. They make my job easier. What are some sites that you recommend?

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Windows Vista is almost here. By now, most people know about or at least have heard about this new and improved version of Windows. But what about the newest version of Windows Server? When will it be releasing to the public? What new features will it have?

Im pretty happy with Windows Server 2003. It has been pretty reliable for my situation. What new features and goodies is Microsoft going to give to entice users to Upgrade? Well I did some research and found some interesting things.

Network Access Protection

From the Microsoft website:

With Network Access Protection, you can create customized health policies to validate computer health before allowing access or communication, automatically update compliant computers to ensure ongoing compliance, and optionally confine non-compliant computers to a restricted network until they become compliant.

This would be a neat feature if it is implemented correctly.

New Terminal Service Features

The feature that stands out the most is Remote Applications. This allows applications to be installed on the Terminal Services Server and be shared to users. Remote Applications can be used side by side just like they were installed on the local machine. By using Remote Apps, this would allow true roaming profiles. The problem now is a user may move to a different computer but may not have a certain program installed.

Another feature is Terminal Services Web. This allows users to log in on the intranet or internet and use applications and desktops the same way remotely. This is integrated into IIS 7, Active Directory, and Sharepoint 3.0

Of course, Microsoft is promising increased reliability and security in the update Terminal Services. It will be interesting to see how the remote applications feature is implemented to reduce bandwidth consumption and slow applications.

Windows Powershell

Windows Powershell is a new command line shell that includes over 130 command line tools to automate common administration tasks of Active Directory, Terminal Server, and IIS. Also included is a new “easy to learn” scripting language made for system admins.

Availability and Naming

Microsoft has stayed true to its two year release timeline on server platforms. They plan on releasing it by the end of 2007 or early 2008. Longhorn is just a ‘codename’, but I don’t think that even Microsoft knows what they are going to name it. A few of my favorites: Windows Server Superb, Windows Server 1337, and Windows Server Superfun.

This is just a outline of some of the new features that stood out to me. There are many more features available. Overall I think they sound good, but if they come out good is another story. A public beta will be released sometime in the next few months. Probably middle to late summer. I’m not really an early adopter, but it will be interesting to see how the new features are implemented.

You can play around with it right now if you want. Head over to the Windows Server “Longhorn” homepage and click on Virtual Lab.

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