Installing a gnu/open source lab at XX gives Studio XX an opportunity to present truly accessible learning and creating opportunities to our community.

Linux represents a philosophy of technology use and acquisition that privilege’s responsible use and careful maintenance over a certain, (often commercially viable) user friendliness. Linux is made stable and efficient through a community of users and developers who are dedicated to fixing any bugs and constantly improving the OS performance.

By installing Linux at X we are presenting women with an opportunity, which demands a certain commitment to learning how to manage and use technology in a self-confident manner.

Studio XX’s mandate has always been to provide women with tools to master and make informed decisions in the domain of technology. A Linux lab is a tool of this nature. By learning to navigate the Linux OS at XX, women will be encouraged to install it and use it at home.

Because it has a lower overhead then commercially owned software (Apple, Microsoft) Linux is more accessible to the feminist arts community. There is excellent documentation on-line and many open source/ freeware resources for the development of web – art projects in the domain of sound, programming, and web development.

At XX we intend to develop and teach workshops in all aspects of cultural production on a Linux system. From this point forth, new media artists doing projects at XX will have the choice of whether they want to learn and work on proprietary software or in an open source environment.

Furthermore, the Linux lab will be an excellent site for critical discussions of the intersection of politics and technology. As well the lab will function as a site for research and development. In the coming years XX will host a wide variety of artists and professionals who will share with the XX community both as presenters and producers.

Some sites of interest:

http://www.linuxchix.org/ - Linuxchix feminist Linux resource.
http://linuxguide.automatedshops.com/LinuxGuide/
- Josh's Gnu/Linux guide
http://www.fsf.org/ - Free Software Foundation

The lab makes use of the K12LTSP model of service provision. For more information please read the following description.

The following text was taken from the description page of the K12lstp.org Linux Terminal Server Project website. http://k12ltsp.org/contents.html

“Introduction:

K12LTSP is based on RedHat Linux and the LTSP terminal server packages. It's easy to install and configure. It's distributed under the GNU General Public License . That means it's free and it's based on Open Source software.

Once installed K12LTSP lets you boot diskless workstations from an applications server. You can use old PC's as diskless clients or buy new ones for under $200 each.

All applications run on the terminal server. Workstations are "thin." They have no software or hard drives. Thin-clients are perfect for schools because they are easy to install and require little maintenance. They are reliable and immune to malicious tampering and viruses.

Overview of a K12LTSP Open Source Lab:

A default K12LTSP installation uses two ethernet cards; eth0 and eth1. One card connects the server to your school network. The other card creates a private network for terminals (thin-clients). Your server and eth1 act as a gateway for the terminals to the Internet and the rest of your network. eth1 is configured to get its ip address via DHCP. A private DHCP server runs on eth0 to give IP numbers to terminals. This configuration is flexible in that you can easily have multiple LTSP servers in your building all sharing the same default configuration. Servers are "plug and play" with little or no configuration required. It only takes about 20 minutes to be up and running.

K12LTSP is based on Red Hat 8.0 with a full set of familiar GUI tools for configuring your server. You have the choice of KDE or GNOME desktops and many applications.Software Included in the K12LTSP/K12Linux Distribution:

Nautilus file manager
Mozilla browser with Java(tm) and Flash (tm) support
Ximian Evolution E-Mail, calendar and contact manager
Adobe Acrobat Reader
OpenOffice
K-Office
Gimp
AbiWord
Auto configuration for many PCI based sound cards
Auto configuration for both PXE and BOOTP clients
File sharing for both Windows and Macintosh network

”


This is the general idea....(image also from k12ltsp.org)

The Studio XX lab – description

The XX lab is modeled on the above description and features six terminals running the basic installation of k12.

Additional to the standard install. the following programs have been installed at XX:

Blender (3d animation program)
Bluefish (programming web deve environment)
NVU (graphical html editor)
Glade interface designer

During summer of 2004 other software for sound production and interactive projects will be installed.

 

http://www.Xtlabs.org - Xtlabs, Montréal Qc.

“The founders of XTabs Corp. are dedicated professionals from the educational and technology sectors. They are intent on providing viable alternatives to proprietary systems and software along with their exorbitant acquisition and maintenance costs. They achieve this by using recycled equipment and open source software powered by a Linux server.”

Studio XX warmly thanks Xtlabs.org for an excellent and informative installation of the server and terminals. We are looking forward to a continued exchange of resources and information with Xtlabs over the coming year.

http://open.mcgill.ca - McGill Linux Users Group, Montréal Qc.

“McLUG is the McGill University Linux Users Group. So what exactly is that? Well, McLUG is a loosely organized group dedicated to the GNU/Linux Operating System. We realize the benefits of Linux and are interested in spreading the word.”

With McLUG, XX will be developing a series of introductory workshops on learning the Linux Environment. Check out the workshops section for more information on dates and times.