My Network Admin at my school is letting me

[blithen]

Install Linux on a computer, but I have to show him some cool/useful stuff on linux first. And I was doing it today and I totally spaced, does anyone have any good ideas to show off?

[LookTJ]

Definitely Compiz Fusion :) I was showing it off to friends and they were impressed.

This was on a computer the teacher reserved for me and let me try to teach a little of what I know about open source, free software, and Linux.

[steeleyuk]

Might like to include a dock as well for showiness.

Also, grabbing some more themes including Windows and Mac to show how anything can be changed/configured.

[LaRoza]

Live disks.

[JT9161]

And don't skip the technical department: Security(Virii,closed ports by default ), Ease of use (Package Manager), The mighty Terminal, etc. And do keep us updated.

[ChanServ]

Might like to include a dock as well for showiness.

Also, grabbing some more themes including Windows and Mac to show how anything can be changed/configured.

making linux look like windows or osx is the worst thing you can do for linux, i dont recomend you do this.

[steeleyuk]

making linux look like windows or osx is the worst thing you can do for linux, i dont recomend you do this.

Some people like the comfort of familiarity. Making something look familiar might help with using Linux. I also said that you can make it look like Windows or Mac (or any other OS) to show how configurable it is...

[toupeiro]

Explain to him that ctrl-alt-backspace fixes 90% of any GUI lockup you may get, and is WAY faster than ctrl-alt-del ever was before windows mucked it up.

[mips]

Put educational stuff on. The usual stuff from edubunutu, celestia, google earth etc. Desktop effects might get peoples initial attention although it won't work on everyone. Oh, and change the default brown theme, initial reactions are usually not to good towards brown in my experience, just pick something professional looking.

[TheSlipstream]

Please don't make it look like Windows or OSX. GNOME is easy to learn, and nobody is seriously going to learn faster because it looks like XP. Show off the package management, safety features (such as Sudo, the best safety feature) and ease of management. This is what admins care about. Keep in mind such people work with servers and don't give a toss about flashy desktops (just disable Compiz, or no higher then moderate in the Appearance), but a quick theme change is a good idea.

[Vince4Amy]

We installed Mandriva on a machine at school and customised it a bit, installed WINE and proved that most of the school applications run properly.

It would be too big of a job to convert a network of over 500 computers before a hardware refresh, but it's certainly an interesting thing to do. The great thing was that our Admin at school is a Red Hat user so he knew what he was talking about anyway and had no problems with us installing Linux on a machine in our Sixth Form area, so long as it was only one machine and only we could use it.

[fballem]

Put educational stuff on. The usual stuff from edubunutu, celestia, google earth etc. Desktop effects might get peoples initial attention although it won't work on everyone. Oh, and change the default brown theme, initial reactions are usually not to good towards brown in my experience, just pick something professional looking.

Suggestion for the theme might be blubuntu which is in the repositories, installs easily and looks very professional. I have installed for one of my clients. There are instructions in post #8 of http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=921758&highlight=install+blubuntu

You didn't indicate what type of school this was, but you may want to make sure the OpenOffice is installed and setup. Find some Word documents and Excel spreadsheets (if your school is already using them), open them, change them, and save them as Word or Excel. Then open the changed items on a Windows workstation - shows that you don't lose what you already have and that you can continue to share with those who have not made the switch.

You haven't told us what the computers are used for at your school. Are they used for homework (documents and spreadsheets), multimedia, games, etc.

You might want to follow the instructions in this post: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=766683. Once that is done, make sure that you start Adobe reader (to get the license agreement screen dealt with). You may want to play a CD through Exaile and a DVD through VLC.

Careful with copyrights and patents if you're in the U.S., Canada, or Western Europe. Some of the codecs in the above link may be an issue. There are alternatives that are legal, but there is a cost associated with them. A couple of alternatives can be found in the ubuntu store https://shop.canonical.com/index.php?cPath=19&osCsid=7cb19090a24e7686b01cd049668a7ba8.

You also didn't tell us anything about the configuration of the machine that you are using. This link identifies the system requirements for various editions of Windows Vista: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/get/system-requirements.aspx. Depending what it is that you want to do, find the correct edition of Windows and verify that the computer meets, or does not meet, the system requirements for the edition of Windows that is needed.

Depending on the graphics card in your computer, you may need to install a proprietary driver (nvidia or ATI). If so, this should show up as part of the installation process for ubuntu. These may be required to enable some of the desktop effects that some of the other posters have mentioned.

Ubuntu does not require an anti-virus program, Windows does. You may install an anti-virus program if you're using e-mail, to ensure that you don't pass infected files to your recipients.

Find out if Visio is used on your computers, and if so, how. If it's simply used for 'drawing pictures' then there are alternatives (Inkscape, Dia). If it's used for more than that - like visual networking, live updating from a database, UML Modeling, etc., then that could be a problem - I haven't found an adequate replacement - and the ones that I have found for UML Modeling are not cheap. In addition, there is no program in Linux that will read an existing Visio file. I have heard that you can run Visio under Wine, but I have not tried it.

Finally, cost out the software that is used on the computer in a Windows environment. Many schools get substantial discounts from Microsoft, so find out what those discounts are. Include the cost of the operating system, anti-virus, and normal software. Depending on whether you have to use the paid codecs or not, the cost for ubuntu will be $0 or the cost of the paid codecs.

Hope this helps,

[Riffer]

In an educational setting one of the big problems is people "playing" with the desktop settings. Sometimes so much so that the comp becomes unusable. Show them "Ubuntu Tweak" and "Pessulus", both easy to use GUI programs that you use to lock down your desktop.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=70768

This link is to a HOWTO for setting up a locked down desktop for a school or library situation. This may not be a "cool" thing to show off Ubuntu, but for someone who has to fix constantly machines that people have mucked with its an important consideration.

[Presto123]

If it's going to be for showing off in the first place: set up a couple of pseudo-users to show off different types of customization possibilities. Why argue about having it or not? It's a pretty simple way to have different looks to show off. 1 could have Compiz and Linux features, 2nd could be Windows-like, and 3rd could be Mac-like.

But, definitely show off things like OpenOffice, FireFox3, and Gimp. Proof of driver support and MAYBE DVD playback would be good too. DVD playback would have to be decided by the IT guy.

Another thing would be the networking capabilities. I bet he would be pretty interested to see a remote desktop in action.

[Polygon]

Put educational stuff on. The usual stuff from edubunutu, celestia, google earth etc. Desktop effects might get peoples initial attention although it won't work on everyone. Oh, and change the default brown theme, initial reactions are usually not to good towards brown in my experience, just pick something professional looking.

like mac os x's aqua, and windows xp's luna (i think), which both have said to be 'cartoony' and 'unprofessional' looking. What constitutes professional?

it seems that to be professional you just have to use the windows 2000 theme.

[roaldz]

I´m going to install a computer for my school, which is going to be used for multimedia editing/creating. So programs like Ardour/Jack/Jamin are going to be installed, Cinelerra and Open movie Editor, GIMP and Blender. Could this be useful to you too?

[Bölvaður]

I hope you have enough linux experience to cope with any questions and give solutions back, and remember that it is allways fixable, so when the admin finds something that needs to be changed you'll say that it is possible to fix it by doing..... something with you'll have to figure out your self.


Knowing the program you are showing off is a big plus.

1. Do not go overboard on the compiz, it has to look nice, but nothing that will look unnecessary for switching between desktops and such.

2. show him that users are unable to change anything without super user access. So remember to have only 1 user on the computer with that, and make 4 other's that do not. Show him how that user cannot install flash-nonfree plugin for firefox.
Then go to the admin account and install it via synaptic and show him that it works now on both admin account and normal user's.

3. Show him Add/Remove and note how large list this is (have it set to All Applications, not only supported). Then install Eclipse (which he should already know) and elaborate on what is happening while you are dowloading "now it is downloading the program from the main server, now it is installing, now I am going to open it from Applications->Programming->Eclipse".

4. remember to have test everything you are going to show him to be sure you will not run into unexpected troubles.

[mips]

like mac os x's aqua, and windows xp's luna (i think), which both have said to be 'cartoony' and 'unprofessional' looking. What constitutes professional?

it seems that to be professional you just have to use the windows 2000 theme.

Well I agree with the cartoony so I would suggest something less like that. There are some very good gnome themes out there. There was a very good compiz theme somewhere in the forums one of the users created, cannot remember the name though.

If I had to use windows I use the old win2k theme. I just go into the settings and select "Optimise for best performance".

[Chame_Wizard]

i love some tips

[nick09]

My suggestion would be is to show the customization options already offered by the install like the window appearance customizations and if the video card is good show them compiz.

EDIT: And talk about the add/remove function and add the codecs like mp3 so you can play a mp3 song sample.

[speedwell68]

I'd say install XP or Vista in a VirtualBox and then flip between desktops using the Compiz Cube. Make sure you have a popular app like Firefox, Google Earth and say Thunderbird on each of the other sides of the cube. Then Plugin a iPod and use something like Amarok or maybe Songbird.

[perce]

Show him that you can go from power off to a full desktop environment in less that one minute; something that many Windows computers fail to do after some use.

[zot171]

You are quite lucky, I did a harmless boot from USB (Mandriva PenDriveLinux persistent image) to show some of my classmates how small yet powerful and functional Linux is, and I got a write up and threatened with expulsion! People truly do fear the unfamiliar...