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Our Computers
| | Parkdale Church of Christ uses computers extensively - this is hardly
surprising since our minister came to us from a long career in the computer
industry! However, most of the computers are old, recycled, or made up from bits
of others, and all except one were donated. Consequently, we needed to break out
of the classic new software/new computer/new applications/licensing costs spiral.
This is how we did it:
- We use free software, and especially open-source
software, whenever possible. The operating system on most of
the computers is Ubuntu, or a variant of
it for educational purposes, Edubuntu.
These are based on GNU/Linux,
and are available free.
Where commercial software is used, there must be a good reason - such as a
large printer/photocopier whose manufacturer has not made a Linux driver available or
possible. We are pragmatic about this, not religious! Next time we buy a
copier, we will choose a different manufacturer.
- Similarly, we use OpenOffice for
all word processing (including our weekly newsletter), spreadsheets, and
simple databases. This means that members who produce documents for the
Church at home do not necessarily have to purchase expensive software.
However, the computer that runs our projector during services uses
commercial software - pragmatism again, it came with the software and it's
just easier that way.
- We have a total of ten really old slow computers that are used for
teaching computer classes. These run as network-booting terminals to a
larger, but still old, terminal server, using Edubuntu. This means we are
virus-free, and only one machine needs to be maintained instead of ten. The
old slow terminals still run fast as far as the user is concerned, because
the server does all the work. The Edubuntu sessions are tailored locally to
suit older people as well as children. Using free software for this project
has saved us thousands of dollars in licensing costs!
- Our services are recorded using Audacity
on Ubuntu, which allows us to produce recordings in the free OGG format, and
to burn audio CDs of our services for those who were unable to attend.
- We use a wireless network to link the main computers together. The ten
terminals are linked to the terminal server using standard cabling.
- The office computer provides internet content filtering for all the others
to avoid embarrassment!
Contrary to the trend, this website is produced using old commercial
software! That's just laziness... | |
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