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| LiveLAMP Available: $10,000 Server Software Solution Free |
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Sunday, July 03 2005 @ 03:15 PM EDT
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Any schools wanting to train students to test and deploy Linux servers but who think they can't, because no one on the staff knows how to do Linux, this is for you. Look at this LiveLAMP project, which offers you a bootable CD solution that will set it up for you, and everything runs from the CD: Open Source Victoria (OSV), an industry cluster of more than 60 open source and free software providers, has responded to a group of IT teachers who want a simple way to test and deploy Linux servers in schools with a free server software CD.
OSV has developed a free product called LiveLAMP, which is a bootable CD that turns a spare computer into a Linux development server for students to practice and publish programming exercises in over a dozen languages with hundreds of development tools. . . .
According to OSV, LiveLAMP can turn any PC into an instant server capable of supporting up to 1,000 students doing work on over a dozen programming languages and hundreds of development tools. Technologies covered include PHP, Python, Perl, MySQL, Ruby, PostgreSQL, C++, C, Pascal, Fortran, CVS, Apache, Lex/Yacc, text editing, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, XML and many more. LiveLAMP will fully integrate with their existing Windows, Apple or Linux systems. OSV estimates that purchasing proprietary
versions of this software for 1000 students and teachers would cost each school over $10,000 if they had to pay for it. This is a Con Zymaris baby, and you can read his first announcement about the project dated May 10 here. The concept from the email: (Secondary) school teachers want to deploy Linux in labs, but their IT
staff Don't Do Linux.
Teacher gets CD and a spare box. Boot from CD, wipe hard disk and install
data (/home, /etc, /var) to disk (programs run from CD). That box serves
LAMP to the other machines in the lab. The first release of LiveLamp is this month. From May 10 to July, start to finish. I love projects like this, that make GNU/Linux simple. It isn't just schools that can benefit. You can too.
Here's the complete press release:
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$10,000 server software solution free: OSV makes offer to every Australian school
Open Source Victoria (OSV) responds to a group of IT teachers who
want a simple way to test and deploy Linux servers in schools. LiveLAMP
is a bootable CD that turns a spare computer into a Linux development
server for students to practice and publish programming exercises
in over a dozen languages with hundreds of development tools.
"IT administrators within the education sector can have difficulties
adopting emerging platforms such as Linux," said OSV education
spokesperson Donna Benjamin. "Time poor, they struggle just to keep
up with the needs of a school IT network. Justifying the time to
setup and maintain a professional development server on which
student programmers experiment can be difficult. This is why we are
developing the LiveLAMP instant Linux server solution."
With the LiveLAMP project, OSV aims to do for Linux application and
database servers what Knoppix has done for desktops. LiveLAMP can
turn any PC into an instant server capable of supporting up to 1,000
students doing work on over a dozen programming languages and
hundreds of development tools. Technologies covered include PHP,
Python, Perl, MySQL, Ruby, PostgreSQL, C++, C, Pascal, Fortran, CVS,
Apache, Lex/Yacc, text editing, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, XML and many
more. LiveLAMP will fully integrate with their existing Windows,
Apple or Linux systems. OSV estimates that purchasing proprietary
versions of this software for 1000 students and teachers would cost
each school over $10,000 if they had to pay for it.
"Secondary school teachers who want to deploy Linux in their IT labs
often find that their IT staff "Don't Do Linux". With the LiveLAMP
CD, we've made the process absolutely painless. With the CD in hand
a teacher just needs to find a surplus PC. To run the LiveLAMP
server, simply insert the CD-ROM into the PC and press reset. A
minute later, the LiveLAMP system has created 1,000 student accounts
on that PC and is now running as a server. All the programs run from
the CD. Students can log in and start using the programming tools.
That surplus PC then becomes a Live Linux server for the other
machines in the lab," continued Benjamin.
Con Zymaris from OSV leads the LiveLAMP development effort. He has
over 20 years experience in working with open source technologies.
Zymaris is enthusiastic about this project. He notes that one of the
few remaining hurdles that Linux and open source technologies face
in the marketplace is a lack of user familiarity. "With the LiveLAMP
project, we hope to make it a trivial step for any school anywhere
to trial a Linux server which comes with most of the major
programming languages and tools used by industry. We are therefore
simultaneously introducing new users to Linux as well as introducing
exciting and powerful computer technologies to school kids.
Both will help grow Australia's ICT skills-base while
improving kids' education."
OSV is funding the development of the LiveLAMP CD and will
facilitate its distribution as a downloadable ISO image and through
peer-to-peer file sharing networks. Giving more students the
opportunity to develop their computing skills by accessing open
source industry tools is an investment in tomorrow's ICT community.
Releasing LiveLAMP under an Open Source Licence means that anyone,
not just schools, can harness the opportunities it presents.
Open Source Victoria would like to thank the Victorian Government
for the funding which makes projects like LiveLAMP possible.
The LiveLAMP project is scheduled to deliver its first release
candidate in July 2005.
- - -
About Open Source Victoria
Open Source Victoria is an Industry Cluster consisting of over 60
Victorian firms and developers which provide services and technology
related to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS.) Open Source
Victoria offers marketing, advocacy and information referral
services, and aims to raise the profile of FOSS in Victoria and work
with other similar organisations across Australia.
http://www.osv.org.au/
Contact: Con Zymaris
[phone, fax, email]
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| Authored by: TerryC on Sunday, July 03 2005 @ 03:27 PM EDT |
This is one of those 'wow' moments; like Knoppix.
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Terry[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, July 03 2005 @ 03:47 PM EDT |
It's actually called XAMP - where L = Linux is replaced by X = Mac OS X.
The advantage of Mac OS X 10.4.x is that you get WebObjects for free
(formerly cost $50,000) and you can use nearly anything that you can use on
Linux and Unix. Mac OS X also comes with a complete set of development/
programming tools.
Of course, if you want to go completely open source, you can use the
underlying Unix layer of Mac OS X, called Darwin.
Then your platform can be called "DAMP", D = Darwin.
So if your school has Macs, XAMP is free for the taking.
Here's a reference: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-macosx.html[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: vruz on Sunday, July 03 2005 @ 04:19 PM EDT |
To avoid confusions, I suggest changing the title of this article from:
"LiveLAMP Available: $10,000 Server Software Solution Free"
to something more like:
"LiveLAMP: $ 10,000 Worth Server Sofwtare at no cost"
You know, the usual problem explaining what the hell "free" means.
I seriously wish the FSF hadn't stuck to that, but I guess it's too late now.
Actually, I think that expressing this in this monetary terms in this case is
really an understatement.
In a school with 100 CS students, this title would easily be replaced by:
"LiveLAMP helps school to save $ 1 Million yearly in Server Software for
their students"
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--- the vruz[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: jbb on Sunday, July 03 2005 @ 05:29 PM EDT |
You know the drill -- clickable links, HTML mode.
---
Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make
you commit injustices.[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: micheal on Sunday, July 03 2005 @ 05:47 PM EDT |
Does anyone have a link to download LiveLamp? I couldn't find one on their site.
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LeRoy
If I have anything to give, made of this life I live, it is this song, which I
have made. Now in your keeping it is laid.
Anon[ Reply to This | # ]
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- Download? - Authored by: LocoYokel on Sunday, July 03 2005 @ 08:40 PM EDT
- Download? - Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, July 03 2005 @ 08:47 PM EDT
- Download? - Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, July 03 2005 @ 08:50 PM EDT
- Con Zymaris - Authored by: ine on Sunday, July 03 2005 @ 09:46 PM EDT
- Download? - Authored by: Steve Martin on Monday, July 04 2005 @ 08:45 AM EDT
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| Authored by: SilverWave on Sunday, July 03 2005 @ 05:52 PM EDT |
Corrections Here if any :)
---
"They [each] put in one hour of work,
but because they share the end results
they get nine hours... for free"
Firstmonday 98 interview with Linus Torvalds[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: bsm2003 on Sunday, July 03 2005 @ 07:54 PM EDT |
| This is the correct title. You left some out and that is
misleading.
Press Releases :: $10,000 server software solution
free: OSV makes offer to every Australian school [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Bill The Cat on Sunday, July 03 2005 @ 11:36 PM EDT |
A bit misleading in the topic, where (Austalia!) and the fact that it runs
entirely on CD.
MySQL database and it's data, Logs scripts and HTML for the Apache server, etc.
must be on a writeable media and a RAM disc is volatile so isn't a good
long-term option. Maybe Linux runs on the CD but most of the other elements
(Apache, MySQL, PHP) need to be on a media where they can be created, modified
and deleted.
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Bill Catz[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, July 04 2005 @ 01:09 PM EDT |
I really don't get LAMP.
I mean.
Linux is - well, okayish, but if you want to do real stable secure serving
you're
better served (yes, I know, bad pun) with a BSD. Linux is stable most of the
time, but with the curent 'stable' kernel being crashtastic 2 releases out of 3,
what hope is there of having a secure server that's also guaranteed to be up?
2.0 and most of 2.2 were good serving platforms, but 2.4 onwards have been
dire from my point of view.
Apache is a good webserver. I'll give you that. It's not the snappiest of
beasts, and is being fast overtaken in terms of feature set by lighttpd etc, but
it works.
MySQL simply sucks in comparison to other sql solutions, and has some very
nasty licensing gotchas.
And PHP is a web programming language that doesn't understand data
tainting, for <deity>'s sake. Let me say that again. PHP does not provide
one
of the most basic of web development paradigms.
I just don't get why it's so hyped.
Apart from Apache, it's not best of breed, and even apache is looking a bit
long in the tooth these days. All in all the package is (just barely) good
enough. Something that we've all had more than enough of from the beast of
Redmond, no?
For my money (and yes, I do put it where my mouth is, this is how I make my
living)
FreeBSD or OpenBSD for platform. Or potentially Solaris, which is 100% stable
on Sun's machines, can't vouch for the ix86 stuff.
Apache or lighttpd.
Postgresql
Ruby on Rails or one of the mutitudinous Java setups (Hibernate and
Tapestry, for example) if you can live with enormous amounts of XML
Of course, none of these fall under the beloved GPL, so...
Simon
And what I really don't get is how this is news fit for Groklaw.[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: yorkshireman on Monday, July 04 2005 @ 03:05 PM EDT |
| I am sure LiveLAMP will be good when it is available for download, but LAMPPIX a Live CD LAMP system based
on KNOPPIX / Damn Small LINUX is already available in 2 different flavours! a
combined desktop and server or pure server (mini!). [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, July 06 2005 @ 06:37 PM EDT |
By doing this, OSV have effectively put themselves in the role of a Linux
distro--albeit a very small one compared to more general-purpose ones like Red
Hat and Debian. But, by distributing this stuff, it opens up the question of
security updates (and other bugfixes too, I suppose). My experience with
Knoppix is that live CDs aren't good at security updates.
For example, AIUI, the version of Mozilla that shipped with Knoppix 3.8.1 has at
least one security hole. I'm sure a lot of people who use Knoppix are the less
technically savvy type who wouldn't necessarily think about security updates
unless they were hand-held through the process. Given the kinds of places that
live CDs like that wind up (I've given copies of it to technically-challenged
colleagues, for example), offering live CDs like that might be hurting the cause
in the end more than it's helping.
I just looked and noticed an update to Knoppix 3.8.2, but the only noted
security fixes were to OpenOffice.org. Perhaps that was a goof on the builders'
part, either not to upgrade it or not to note it in the changelog...
...but then that leads to the other problem that distributing live CDs as .iso
files means redownloading a lot of unchanged software. My DSL is nice, but I
still don't want to be downloading half a gigabyte willy-nilly. The only
exceptions I'm aware of to CDs being served as ISOs is Debian (which offers
jigdo to write ISOs from package files) and Gentoo (which has some scripts to
burn the live CDs they use for installs).
That said, if OSV are willing to step up to the plate[*] on critical updates,
I'm all for anything that removes unnecessary obstacles to using good software.
[*] Baseball metaphor... I don't know what Australians would prefer. Cricket?
Socc^WFootball?
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