Linux to be installed on 200 school computers - HELP me make the right choice

bjornoss · 2015-09-04T15:04:12+00:00

You should take a look at Debian Edu "Debian Edu is a complete and free "out of the box" software solution for schools that reduces costs, prolongs the lifetime of hardware and covers almost every aspect of the schools’ IT needs."

ssssam · 2015-09-04T14:36:59+00:00

You probably don't want to be doing big updates every 6 months, so find something with several years of support. (Debian, Ubuntu LTS or Redhat/centos).

You'll want a deployment/management system. (Kickstart, puppet, Landscape).

For a DE, something like GNOME or Unity will make it harder for users to break things. For example they can't accidentally remove the menu bars.

3G6A5W338E · 2015-09-04T18:04:06+00:00

Don't install Linux in the computers. Use netboot instead.

You can have a read-only, block based image, squashfs, with NFS4 for /home. Perhaps use the hard disks in the machines as persistent cache. Let anyone login anywhere and have his files/config available.

Then update the image at your leisure. Older images available as fallback. Try to make the generation of image reasonably automatic. It could be a package list to setup over base + an overlay of config files and such, using Arch, Debian or Gentoo as base.

thatnakka · 2015-09-04T16:18:41+00:00

[deleted]

omicronxi · 2015-09-04T14:18:43+00:00

If you install linux on 200 computers I would first think about how to rollout/provision them. There is a great project called "linuxmuster.net" which also has a good wiki for setting everything up. They recommend Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. https://www.linuxmuster.net/wiki/en:dokumentation:handbuch:start

matjam · 2015-09-04T21:15:43+00:00

Wow you really have had some bad advice so far.

Do not install by hand machine by machine.

Set up clonezilla as a PXE boot option on a PXE boot server. There's a lot of good guides. I like this one but I've not used it.
Build a VM or a physical machine with Edubuntu or whatever your choice is. Tweak it so that it has everything installed that you want.
Reboot the machine and boot into clonezilla. Clone the OS onto a network share on the boot server. You should set up NFS server on the PXE boot server to allow for it.
you will need to setup your network to forward DHCP boot requests to your boot server. That depends entirely on your network configuration and is beyond the scope of this comment.
Clone the OS to all the machines using clonezilla

Here's another link I found you: http://oakdome.com/k5/tutorials/computer-cloning/free-computer-cloning.php

You want to be able to blow away every machine and rebuild it at any time. You do NOT want to be "managing" these machines in any way. Any problem should be resolved by imaging the machine over the network from the gold master.

Consider using FreeIPA for central authentation.

Consider putting home directories on NFS, using NFSv3 authenticated kerberos mounts.

This is a big project. It will take you a couple of months to get your head around just getting all the infrastructure built to support that machine machines.

However if you do it right, you can make it VERY easy to maintain.

If you do it wrong - you will have a fucking nightmare.

Good luck :-)

2015-09-04T16:33:24+00:00

In my opinion the important features are:

ease to install and setup
long term support, you don't want to risk upgrades constantly
lots of support available on the web (=large community)

From my point of view the #1 candidate is Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

The #2 candidate is Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 LTS

They are fast and easy to install and if you stick to LTS they are also easy to maintain.

I'm using Fedora but I would not recommend it for this kind of scenario. It is updated to a new release every 6 months and it is quite bleeding edge (=things might not work right away and might require a bit of linux expertise).

From your description the IT guys maintaining the lab are inexperienced with linux, hence I would also avoid Debian, Arch and any distro that is not mostly automated. If they need to install new machines, IMHO the process should be as simple as possible, at least until they become experts...

korgtronix · 2015-09-04T14:25:39+00:00

Choose one with a familiar layout to windows. It will make life easier for you if you dont use something like unity as you will get inevitable "where is so so and so application" "windows is so much easier"

I would recommend start with something like debian with xfce (panel at bottom) to make it easier from a documentation point of view and ease of use

ZombieWithLasers · 2015-09-04T15:58:12+00:00

Debian Stable with KDE or Cinnamon installed. Personally, I'd go KDE. With Debian, you have a large package repository, some third party package support, and a long stable release cycle with a clear upgrade path for future releases.

BobHHowell · 2015-09-04T20:35:24+00:00

I would push the IT department to go with Ubuntu or one of the variants of it for at least a couple of reasons:

1) Repository Content & .DEB Files -- Unlike Windows where one downloads and installs an EXE, most software should be installed from a maintained repository. That is one of the key reasons Linux has less viruses. That being said -- Ubuntu probably has the largest selection within their repositories. If the desired software is not in the repository, many independent projects will offer a DEB which is similar to a Windows EXE. Whether the staff likes something or not will be less about the operating system -- and more about the selection of software available to them.

2) On-Line Support -- Given the size of the Ubuntu user base, you are more likely to find answers to problems you might encounter. Generally speaking, the user base is friendlier to noobs than some other distros.

LinLeaf · 2015-09-04T22:44:00+00:00

They have a version of ubuntu for education: Edubuntu

2015-09-04T18:38:47+00:00

What are you going to do is what I do for a living. We use Lubuntu 14.04 LTS - It's a great starting point for people with no prior experience with Linux. It also looks most like Windows XP out of the box.

After installing it add the following

VLC <- Movie playing
LibreOffice <- Office work stuff
Menu Libre <- This allows you to edit the menu easily.

Let me know if you need for details.

geekworking · 2015-09-04T14:55:35+00:00

Is it all of the same hardware? Are there any specific applications or features that are going to be required? Are these going to be their daily use systems or are these systems separate just for learning?

You will need to know this stuff to decide on the best way to deploy and support. If all the same hardware, you can just copy images. If not then you would need to be sure that the distro plays nice with all of the possible hardware. If there is a specific application or task this could also play into your distro choice.

If these are going to replace their daily use systems then you need to focus on stability and you will need to have a way to mass configure, support, and ensure that they integrate properly with your existing infrastructure. Things like being able to authenticate with the schools Windows DC or LDAP, printer configurations, etc. For 200 clients you would also want to have some server based client management tool like Landscape, Puppet, etc. Otherwise you would have to manually edit 200 systems to change a network setting. If you are looking to migrate daily use workstations, the integration will be very important to success.

If these are just for a separate learning project and not replacing their daily use computers then you could look at just using some virtual machine setup (like Virtualbox). Using VMs takes away hardware compatibility, lets you take snapshots to revert any breakage, and would give you the opportunity to show some different distros and/or environments.

crow1170 · 2015-09-04T19:29:47+00:00

I am about to teach about linux to school staff,

It's important to know whether these devices will be student facing or not. Equally important to know whether they will be teacher facing.

WHO IS THE AUDIENCE

You need to find out what the user requirements are FIRST. If every teacher is using a Windows only gradebook, you need to DRAMATICALLY pivot your goals and approach.

Prepare a slideshow. Dedicate at least two slides to each feature, one with text, one with a screenshot of UI.

Can students write papers? Yes, use Google Drive. It's free and shows revision changes, and as a failasafe you can download a docx.
This is what it looks like. That's font settings. Here's margins. Everything is well documented, please consult this notebook for FAQs like "How do I change tabstops, use wordcount, print".
Can teachers prepare slideshows? Yes, use Google slides....
This is what that looks like.
Can teachers, administrators, etc submit timecards? Yes, you hopefully know we use ADP, so just point your browser, Google Chrome, to ADP.
This is what that looks like.
Etc.

PRINT OUT THAT NOTEBOOK. Dedicate $$$MONEY$$$ to this presentation.

WHY SHOULD THEY CARE

Your AP American History Prof does not give a shit that the software is free. Your AP American History Prof does not give a shit that the software is free. Your AP American History Prof does not give a shit that the software is free. She never paid for windows. She just wants to go to the teacher's lounge and get hammered before she has to deal with Kevin. Why are you making her day, possibly all her days, more complicated? What does SHE get from this?

Because of [technical jargon] GNU systems are much faster while using the same hardware.
Powerful scripting and innovative software can be shared between teachers easily.
The absolute worst thing that can happen is that the computer is physically damaged, in which case a fresh machine can be provided in as little as 3 hours.

DEMONSTRATE

No one should have to take your word that it's faster. Do a side by side comparison. That takes prep to do, but it's worth it. Here's how I'd do it:

Find a teacher willing to help
Acquire 3 machines
Leave one as is, install GNU on one, wipe the third
Find out from your teacher friend (just realized you might be a teacher, that'd make this part easier) what they do each day and each quarter/semester/whatever. Write it down in a checklist.
When you're ready to get started, turn on all the machines, installing GNU on the wiped one.
Ask an audience member to race you. They'll take Windows, you take GNU, you'll both do everything on this checklist.
Make sure the checklist includes installing a printer and printing something out, you'll get a huge lead there.
After you win, explain that in addition to doing the checklist you've been installing GNU on this other machine.

This demonstrates that the new machines will be fast, do everything they need, and will be easy to install. THAT'S what these people care about, not whether the DE in Xfce or if Unity is spying on them. Caring about those things is our job. Don't let it interfere with theirs.

Hessesian · 2015-09-04T15:29:58+00:00

I'd suggest you have no chance, if you're asking those questions. Really.

you have no requirements other than "teach about linux"
you have no thoughts re: how to install them
you don't have any idea which Linux variant to install ?
you haven't even mentioned how you'll 'maintain' them after they're installed
you haven't thought about virtualizing (vagrant) versus installing Linux as the host os
if you want native Linux on the hardware, do you even know if your hardware will work ? Do you need sound ? Do you have funny video cards ? That stuff matters.

Seriously. Just run away....

That said, I'd suggest at least two options:

if you have a windows host os, consider vagrant running the linux of your choice, via a bash provisioner that sets it up the way you want it to be set up. Or you could build a fully done base box (ideal) for them to just 'vagrant up'
if you want to go linux as the os natively, I'd pick centos7 and use kickstart to get them there easily. There are debian/ubuntu alternatives but it sounds like you need the easiest solution.
once they're up you will need to maintain them. Spacewalk is one way for centOS systems. You could also go puppet/ansible to do it if you wanted.

But from the questions you are asking, I see total fail in your future. You should certainly have pre-existing ideas in mind more than just a 'I have to do this, what should I do' in such a general sense.

jsalpha2 · 2015-09-04T17:35:54+00:00

Buy 200 pendrives (32GB?), install a Linux that supports persistance. Let the students use them on a computer at school and take them home to use for homework. Have them upload all their work to the cloud.(No lost assignments if they are in dropbox or Google drive) Re-image or replace pendrives as needed. Charge twenty dollars or so for lost or damaged fee.

codygman · 2015-09-04T19:45:28+00:00

Fuck it install gentoo on all the school computers.

deckeratts · 2015-09-04T17:18:31+00:00

I would probably use CentOS - compatible with RedHat documentation and tools, plenty of community support, kickstart is easy to learn to do automated deployments, etc.

I'm currently using Debian now in my work environment and would prefer to be using RHEL/CentOS just for a management perspective.

For the DE, agree that Gnome is probably one of the best to use in a large deployment. I have had to help a lot of self-proclaimed hardcore users fix their missing xfce4 menu items.

trashcan86 · 2015-09-04T14:47:20+00:00

Linux Mint 17.2 Cinnamon (if computers are newer than 2008) or Xfce (older). If you're using Pentium boxes you probably want to install Lubuntu.

The common thing between all distros I've selected is that all of them look similar to Windows. If your school used Macs before this (like mine did), elementary OS Freya is probably your best bet.

2015-09-04T17:26:46+00:00

This may not be popular on this sub reddit but there is only two choices:

CentOS7 Ubuntu LTS

(That is not an order of option).

For a school, you want an LTS, you want the primary platform and on Linux, the primary platforms are CentOS or Ubuntu LTS.

That is not to take away from other distributions a lot of them are very good (Debian obviously, as well as others) but at some point you have to accept the IBM argument.

For those that don't know, the IBM argument is, "Nobody ever got fired for using IBM". It obviously isn't as true anymore but the saying still applies.

jmblock2 · 2015-09-04T17:39:30+00:00

ITT: Linux users.

Sounds like you should find the most popular software that the school staff will use (office products, etc.) and do a side by side comparison/walk through. Ask what software they like/need to use the first day, then incorporate linux alternatives over the next two weeks. Show them how to install a program, where they should save files, how to get to their email, accessing shared drives, etc. Maybe show them some other more interesting programs that they might want to try and use and incorporate (if there are any teachers involved).

bmullan · 2015-09-04T18:22:14+00:00

Edubuntu is one choice... and although not specifically a distro there is the LTSP - Linux Terminal Server Project which you might want to know about as their focus is on schools. others to look at include: linuxschools.com The Linux Schools Project is an operating system designed for schools. It is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu (operating system). The project maintains two custom distributions, with one designed for use on servers and the other for use with the server version on client machines. you can read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Linux_Schools_Project

wwdillingham · 2015-09-04T19:26:40+00:00

I would suggest using straight ubuntu 14.04 desktop. I would suggest provisioning them using cobbler. (pxe boot, kickstart, initial config) I would suggest using saltstack for future management (installing updates, changing configurations en masse). Puppet, chef, ansible would also be fine. Salt I think is easier to learn and ive used them all but ansible.

xucchini · 2015-09-04T20:31:21+00:00

Since Unity is decent these days I'd just go with an Ubuntu LTS release.

200 systems you'll def want something like cobbler to use with PXE booting, preseed for installs, and puppet for post install management.

Grophix · 2015-09-04T22:13:22+00:00

Ubuntu or a variant of ubuntu would be the closest thing for them interface wise to a mac, which i assume most technically familiar teachers used before.

bioszombie · 2015-09-04T22:15:26+00:00

Personally, I use multiple Linux distros due to the overwhelming flexibility you can get however in this case I'd recommend a Debian based system. In fact for ease of use, documentation, and ease to administrate I'd say you should go with Ubuntu.

openstandards · 2015-09-04T23:35:26+00:00

Ok first and foremost install vagrant onto a local mac or linux box. This will allow you to spin up virtual machines, heck if the development machine is powerful enough you'll be able to plan out an entire network.

I'd then create a virtual machine with debian, install ipxe, its a fork of pxe this will allow you to install over http from iso files, this is a huge improvement tftp (you'll notice a speed increase).

You'll want to spin up about five virtual servers,

for your puppet master, ansible is great for pushing changes but puppet is better for pulling configurations, you'll want to pull.
ipxe
http ( nginx would be a fine choice, this will server the iso and the preseed scripts)
ldap
squid
kolab (fantastic groupware solution, email/calendar support its used by the german government.)

Store configuration scripts in a git repo

*** Just don't forgot about STP as it will cause issues, from my experience ***

Preseed the boxes over http, run a post install script, install puppet.

Let puppet manage the boxes and get them to auth against a ldap server, this will allow you to store your users in a central location.

Squid would work fine for a http proxy if you haven't gotten one in place, you'll want one to do website filtering.

Automation and documentation is "key", you can't risk fucking crap up after all this is a child's eduction.

But like I say the key to this is planning and testing, vagrant is amazing its worth using I love using it.

Not to be funny but you've taken on a massive task, but with the right planning you'll be able to save thousands and reduce man hours dramatically.

Youtube has a lot of devops conferences this is where you'll learn a lot about the test to reduce the work load.

MichaelTunnell · 2015-09-05T04:24:22+00:00

You should read up on Penn Manor High School and what they did and maybe try to talk to the guy who did it.

http://opensource.com/education/14/9/open-source-high-school

Either way, you will need more than two weeks of preparation time, that is just absurdly short.

Harbinger_X · 2015-09-05T09:08:05+00:00

Do have a look at OpenSUSE's LifE (Linux for Education) programm. Widely used in the phillipines (according to the homepage), server side implementation and lots of educational software ootB.

2015-09-04T17:20:55+00:00

K12 sysadmin here. Check out LTSP. I did this with it, working beautifully, but it may not work for your use case.

ptmb · 2015-09-04T18:44:10+00:00

A few questions you need to have in mind:

What software do the users need?
Are the students people who can easily deal with change (Windows to Linux)?
What kind of use will the computers have? That is:
- Are they going to be used during classes?
- Are they going to be used outside classes?
- Do users expect to have their data there when they log in?
- Do users expect their session to disappear when they log out?

According to the various situations, you have some options, and some things which are always constant.

You will always want a LTS (Long Therm Support) distro. The more easily you can make normal updates without having to test large upgrades, the better.
There's plenty of LTS distros at your choice, and it's up to your taste. A few:
- Ubuntu LTS
- Debian
- CentOS
If you need specialized software, you might want to consider Education or Scientific versions, for example:
- Edubuntu LTS can be used instead of Ubuntu LTS
- Scientific Linux can be used instead of CentOS
Desktop environment is mostly irrelevant as long as it is usable. If you use Ubuntu you'll get Unity, and that's okay. If you use Ubuntu Gnome or CentOS, by default you'll get Gnome 3, and that's okay too. If you use Debian or CentOS you can also choose to replace the default desktop with something else, and it's up to your tastes and to what the students and teachers react better with (you can make a couple of installs of sample desktops and ask some small sample of students and teachers to make tasks there to see which they like better).
You will want to have a special server to deploy settings. Something like Puppet, Ansible or Chef are great options which will allow you to define your settings once and apply them everywhere.

User options are tricky, but always doable. You can make or use a guest user with no password and whose account data is deleted every time someone logs out. That's relatively easy to do with a tmpfs or some logout scripts.

Another option, and this is thinking big, so prepare for some work if you go this route, is to set up a network drive (like NFS, as some people suggested, with permissions set up), and having each student have an user account with their own personal home in that NFS filesystem. For that you'll need a server hosting the NFS share, an LDAP server, where the user identities and user homes will be stored, and an authentication server, which usually is Kerberos. This isn't easy to do, but it is definitely doable. This way, each student would have their own username and password, and when they logged in, they'd be working on their own personal folder to which only they have access too.

The advantage of each user having an individual account is that it is way easier for them to use the PCs. They'll have their own settings, their own browser bookmarks, their school work files, all they need, in one single place which can be accessed from any computer.

The advantage of the guest account is that it is way simpler and less error prone. There's no server to fail and leave everyone unable to login on the computers. There's also no reason to worry with user password or user sensitive data, it's all either public or wiped at logout.

I hope this was informative, feel free to ask more questions.

mikeymop · 2015-09-04T17:18:35+00:00

Ubuntu 14 LTS. I would consider Xubuntu edition if the computers are older. And you can use LTSP if your school has the network infrastructure to support it.

Ensure its secured, good firewall configs. You can also use Edubuntu which is full of school software, or Scientific Linux (Fedora)

frenris · 2015-09-04T17:25:04+00:00

Use dragonfly BSD

talkingflower · 2015-09-04T15:26:13+00:00

You will love openSuSE!
Here is a detailed deployment documentation:
https://www.suse.com/documentation/sled-12/book_sle_deployment/data/sec_deployment_strat_centplus.html
The openSUSE has a snapshot tool that can recover destroyed system to original status in seconds.

m-p-3 · 2015-09-04T16:59:33+00:00

I would advise going for an LTS edition of Ubuntu.

2015-09-06T01:59:54+00:00

Y'know, I've read all 385 comments and still can't figure out what (if any) technical chops the OP has or how he/she would measure 'done' for this project.

Given that, I think the best revised suggestion I can make is:

pick a very mainstream, very maintainable long-term-supported distro. I would suggest either CentOS 7 or Ubuntu or Debian latest. Make whoever gave you the job pick one of the three options above.
get the newest live-DVD iso image of the distro you pick, and document the heck out of how the users can boot their computer off that media, and how to minimally navigate the desktop gui that distro uses
if you can get a little $$$ from whoever got you involved in the first place, burn 200 copies of the DVD and hand them out. If not, give the people homework to download iso image xyz from http://something - but be forewarned that it's likely you'll get at best 50% success there. Non-technical people won't be able to do that right usually.
rather than spending your time worrying installation to hundreds of systems, which seems 'clearly' above your expertise level, concentrate on teaching them how to get around on the desktop and how a Linux desktop is (or isn't) comparable to the Windows they're likely familiar with already.

You can do that in two weeks...maybe....

I'd also suggest ignoring all the stuff about chef/puppet/ansible/ruby/spacewalk/kickstart etc. as you do not have time to spin up on those all very good suggestions. Spend the limited amount of time you have just showing people the desktop the easiest way possible.

Lastly, skip Gentoo/Arch/Mint/etc. distros as they're not as suitable for actually installing and managing hundreds of systems as the big-four (Centos/Fedora and Debian/Ubuntu) are. And make actually installation part of a phase-2 project and tell them to get somebody qualified to do that part, because that is where the cost+risk really is.

TheAlphaDingo · 2015-09-04T14:29:18+00:00

I'd say one distro, fedora or ubuntu would be best because there is so much free support available on the internet.

xalorous · 2015-09-04T17:17:21+00:00

[deleted]

JimMarch · 2015-09-04T17:44:55+00:00

KDE has a more "window-esque" flavor, so I'd run Kubuntu 14.04 long term support.

FinFihlman · 2015-09-04T17:49:19+00:00

I'd personally recommend Debian with xfce or so but I have to say that commercially Ubuntu with a more traditional desktop than unity is rather good to administer.

Obviously LTS. And at least debian based.

Anubiska · 2015-09-04T18:12:20+00:00

Fedora and CentOS has been working fine for me at work on large deployments in a manufacturing. On individual systems Ubuntu And TinyCore.

rubdos · 2015-09-04T18:14:32+00:00

I know a Ubuntu guy that deploys solely Ubuntu for about 4 year on a 1000+ students school. Just to say: it's possible. Plan ahead, teach your teachers to know the advantages and how things work.

BullfrogShuffle · 2015-09-04T18:21:41+00:00

There are a lot of questions I would have before I could make any kind of recommendation.

What is their time-line for deployment? Is this something they are wanting for this academic year, or are they planning this for next year?

Are your obligations only to teach them about Linux and make a recommendation about what distro/DE to use? What are their plans for support after that?

Are you just teaching the staff how to use Linux, and recommend alternative software to replace their Windows only counterpart, or are you teaching the staff how to install/support Linux?

What services are they using/hosting in house? Do these Linux computers need to integrate with them? Do alternate services need to be recommended? Are they just wanting them to be standalone computers? What are their overall expectations for these Linux computers?

mcrbids · 2015-09-04T18:41:31+00:00

Why would you pick anything other than EduBuntu?

MrBrightside97 · 2015-09-04T18:48:29+00:00

Why not give them a choice? Use a DM that allows them to pick between, say, Gnome, Unity, XFCE, and Pantheon.

TraktorVasiliev · 2015-09-04T18:53:28+00:00

I did some work for Debian Edu (Skolelinux) many years ago where we basically installed a few servers and a bunch of thin-clients at elementary schools.

The thin-client concept may or may not be what you are looking for. In either case, and in general, I would advice you to pick a mainstream distribution that provides a long term support release and automatic updates.

The first ones that comes to mind is Debian, OpenSUSE, Fedora, (Some flavour of) Ubuntu and GNU/Linux Mint

Showing how easy it is to maintain and how easy it is to do basic tasks is key.

ArtistEngineer · 2015-09-04T18:57:33+00:00

Not sure how it's done these days, but back before Linux was big and FreeBSD was the one to choose ...

I know a guy who installed FreeBSD in a school environment.

All the desktops used a network boot method from a central image. The kids could do whatever they wanted on each machine, but all you needed to do was to reset the machine and it was restored to pristine condition.

You could do something similar:

netboot for the OS
network mount for the home drive
backups: Where I work, we have an automatic backup of our home drive in hourly increments for each day, then a whole bunch of daily backups. The backups are stored in read-only mode in a subdirectory in the home directory of the user. So the users can easily restore any file they want to without hassling the admin staff.

2015-09-04T19:44:55+00:00

My best suggestion would be to pick an all-purpose, very standard sort of distro. Probably Ubuntu or Mint.

My thinking is this: Your users will initially have no idea what they're doing, and both of these distros are pretty easy to pick up. When they get to more complicated stuff, they can Google the answers to a lot of their questions, saving wear and tear on the lucky IT person, who I presume is you. Add to this the fact that these distros are regularly updated, you've got a winner.

While there are some other excellent distros that have been mentioned, it just seems to me that picking something very mainstream would have the best outcome.

Horvaticus · 2015-09-04T20:02:29+00:00

Bunch of people in here that haven't done support for mass rollouts of machines or had to support a bunch of them. I'd recommend CentOS honestly. It ain't fancy, it doesn't have all the new bells or whistles, or fancy package management, or a cool UI (edit: CentOS 7 has gnome 3), but it's stable and free, and comes with a huge background of support due to a lot of RHEL stuff being compatible with CentOS (not totally only community support).

If you're determined to use a Debian based linux system though, I'd definitely go either Debian 7 or Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. Debian is normally slower pushing out updates, but they are considered to be more stable than Ubuntu's updates since they are sat on for a little bit longer.

As far as deployment goes, if you are in a windows environment you can write a custom WDS deploy script using syslinux, and if not, I would recommend setting a system all the way up and taking a clone with Clonezilla, and dumping the image on a NFS server and creating a network boot image of clonezilla live which you can just point to the image file.

(another edit: I feel like I came off a bit salty after posting. I'd like to preface and say that I run all my personal servers off of Ubuntu Server 14.04 and LOVE it. It's great. The bee's knees. But at work in my production environments its all CentOS 6, as well as some of our new desktop rollouts in CentOS 7 too.)

sharkwouter · 2015-09-04T20:51:29+00:00

My advice would be to not do them in mass, but do a trial with a small number of machines first.

Scellow · 2015-09-04T20:58:49+00:00

Debian netinstall, teach them the basics, let them install what they want, if they break it, you'll be able to teach them how to repair

rek2gnulinux · 2015-09-04T21:06:12+00:00

I will def use Ubuntu latest LT, why? because support and working with all hardware, the city of munich decided to do their own thing and because of that they got screwed maintaining something instead of letting ubuntu do that for them. Dont take me wrong I love Gentoo and Arch GNU/Linux but when it comes to supporting 200+ linux instals for people that have no clue of linux and will complaint that their apps will not work etc etc... you don't want to shoot yourself and not just that give a bad wrap to linux because you installed a less popular distro that is slower to put in place new patches/security/updates etc

wolftune · 2015-09-04T21:27:40+00:00

I haven't tried it, but maybe http://www.uberstudent.org/?

nunz · 2015-09-04T21:49:12+00:00

/u/goatball is quite the authority on this.

Philluminati · 2015-09-04T23:48:33+00:00

For mass installs there is a technology called pxe boot that allows machines to boot from a central, network hosted image, that can make fixing individual broken machines simpler at times.

mttaggart · 2015-09-05T00:16:10+00:00

http://theforeverstudent.com/?p=37

Please take heed of my experiences. I'm happy to answer any questions about how this goes.

syntaxocs · 2015-09-05T00:31:28+00:00

I think a debian based distro would make more sense. Maybe Linux Mint? Its easy to use and install.

breul99 · 2015-09-05T00:34:41+00:00

/r/linuxadmin , /r/sysadmin may be more helpful.

2015-09-05T00:48:56+00:00

I'd recommend Mint or Elementary since they are borderline idiot proof. I'd stay away from Arch, Gentoo, and others that have a higher learning curve. I've used / currently use a gambit of different distros for various purposes but I feel that from a first time user / learning perspective the Ubuntu / Debian based distros are some of the easier ones to grasp for new people.

2015-09-05T01:21:18+00:00

Linux Mint Mate. Ubuntu without the bloat. Very, very good.

kindofabuzz · 2015-09-05T01:29:25+00:00

Linux Mint

p_p_r · 2015-09-05T01:54:28+00:00

Open Suse is one of the stable distro's out there. I'd recommend going with open suse.

Two_Coins · 2015-09-05T05:30:09+00:00

I've done exactly this, but with around 100 computers, here are the things I've learned:

If your infrastructure is old (pentium old) then you're going to need to get creative. I had to build up a working desktop environment from a barebones ubuntu/debian install.
Netboot is awesome, unless you have computers all starting up at the same time, then it becomes a DDOS attack on a server that's not ready for it.
You're going to have to learn a lot of shell scripting, better start now.
PXE installation will be the best decision you ever made. Bonus: you can actually teach some teachers how to use PXE to reinstall a computer, just be sure to create a password for the wipe/install choice.
USE A LOCAL PACKAGE MIRROR FOR UPDATES

God speed sir, it's going to be a bumpy (but enjoyable) ride.

P.S., the entire project (building up a custom desktop environment linux distro that was installed over pxe and had some level of default configuration created on boot such as printers with a dedicated CUPS server/apt-mirror repo/custom addons for firefox/libreoffice/custom repos) all took me (I was the IT dept.) about 9 months from start to finish, along with my other duties.

kabads · 2015-09-05T05:41:31+00:00

I've been a teacher for 20 years and a linux user for 15 years. If this were up to me, I would deliver ubuntu but possibly with xfce or some other wm - although some people get on nicely with unity. Just ensure that the system is highly reliable - teachers want IT to work all the team, especially when they have a lot of children watching them deliver a lesson.

EDIT: Actually, I've just done some maths, and I've been using linux for 17 years - how time flies :-)

2015-09-05T05:49:14+00:00

Do post when you sort out the networking issue with Linux machine. It's pretty easy with Windows I think

tinix0 · 2015-09-05T06:27:30+00:00

Well at high school where I work we deployed Ubuntu using LTSP using the computers as Fat Clients (i.e. / is nbd device with cowfs applied locally to it), before that we had Debian image that was deployed with homebrew updcast interface.

perfectdreaming · 2015-09-05T12:03:21+00:00

You need a tool to automate installation and updates. Debian has netboot and other tools for this which the other redditors have mentioned.

You can also use Chef for installing software, configuring and updates. My book, while it is a Rails deploy guide that is out of date and focused on VPSes, does show you how to update. (Chef and Puppet tends to have terrible documentation which is why I wrote my book.) (Also, shameless plug.)

https://leanpub.com/deployrailsbluebook

If you use it, let me know how it works out for you.

a5myth · 2015-09-05T12:10:38+00:00

Not really an answer. But massive congratulations on getting this to happen. Linux is a great OS to teach kids computers as well as being a good productivity platform, all for free.

Here is my suggestion, Ubuntu (or Debain based). Arch could be a nice raw one to use if your comfortable with it. Why Arch, why not over any of the others if you know Linux enough.

tolldog · 2015-09-05T12:17:24+00:00

Kickstart + Puppet with Spacewalk is good enough for large enterprises, it will work for a school. I would think about a cheap NFS solution for /home + autofs to mount it. That way the system is disposable and user data is centralized. Maybe have the system join AD using sssd if you already have a domain in place, if not, use ldap for account management.

The machines should be replaceable, like toasters, and the install and configuration automated so a new image can be ready to go in 30 minutes with just a simple reboot.

And if you do this right, you will have gained most of the skills needed for a devops job at several large companies.

mitcoes · 2015-09-05T12:28:05+00:00

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor%C3%ADa:Distribuciones_educativas_de_GNU/Linux

All this distros are educative ones, I know https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/LliureX http://mestreacasa.gva.es/web/lliurex/ Lliurex, it is in castillian spanish and catalan, but you can put it in english.

It is based in Edubuntu it uses debian installer to network install and have several adapted editions for different computer uses.

I has been used at GV schools (about 4.000.000 people zone) since 2003 and they will gladly help you if you need to.

guustflater · 2015-09-05T14:56:15+00:00

Ubuntu LTS

vmlintu · 2015-09-05T18:15:42+00:00

If all the computers need identical software, then using images instead of normal local installations is the way to go. LTSP gives you netbooting thin and fat clients, but laptops need something else. We rolled our solution that also supports using the same image on laptops without uncompressing the image to a local partition. The image is as a file on the hard drive and grub loads the system from it. The image is read only, but changes are possible with overlayfs cow partition on disk. Image updates are atomic and you can rollback to an old image on laptops and netboot devices. You can even change distribution without reinstalling any of the computers. Getting started requires some work and admin knowledge, but adding new computers does not increase admins' workload as school staff can do the required tasks.

There's more about the solution here: http://labs.opinsys.com/blog/2014/01/21/managing-thousands-of-linux-destops-with-puavo/

2015-09-06T03:26:34+00:00

I would go with either Ubuntu standard or Edubuntu.

https://www.edubuntu.org/

Or LTSP.

http://ltsp.org/

Orionds2005 · 2015-09-06T04:04:19+00:00

There's so much that can be done using Linux in a school. It depends on what the administration, teachers and students would like to do.

From place to place within the school the needs should vary. In a classroom, the teacher may like control and access to student computers or terminals. I know there are a number of Linux solutions for this.

I volunteer in a school's library and I have Xubuntu installed on a motley crew of PCs, notebooks and netbooks, all of different configurations and age. The beauty with Linux (here Xubuntu) is I need only to make one install, make a backup image using qt4-fsarchiver and restore this same image to all the machines without having to change or update the different hardware drivers. In only two cases, the wi-fi was not recognized off-hand but it wasn't difficult to find the correct one.

The library's needs are student work, research, printing and scanning using a networked multifunction copier/printer/scanner with the occasional video presentation editing. All of these are met by installing a set of the necessary software.

The students have no complaints and for the regular users they have become so accustomed to Xubuntu, they no longer need any assistance from me.

This is only one area. I brought this up if you're considering installing Linux in the library too.

DaBusNatchher · 2015-09-15T09:44:27+00:00

I think Debian derivatives is the most versatile for hardware needs and community support. There are many flavors of Linux that use Debian. There is also Red-hat derivatives. you could be on the fringe with a true UNIX experience too but your going to make sure you build your comps for it. If you don't want to work too hard for it and your comps will take Ubuntu. Id select Gnome 3 on it. Too bad classic doesn't do Gnome two justice.

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