K12LTSP in EPISD

The K12 Linux Terminal Server Project is a worldwide movement that supports the development and implementation of a reliable and robust set of applications built around the Linux Operating System. As such, Linux OS is the equivalent of Microsoft's Windows 98 or XP, but differs greatly in it's licensing - the OS and almost all it's applications are Open Source: copyrighted but free of charge.

Linux itself, an outgrowth of the early UNIX systems, has undergone an incredibly fast growth and an explosive expansion. There are many flavors of Linux, some very generic, some developed for highly specialized tasks. On the desktop application side, perhaps the two best known are Red Hat and SuSe.

The first K12LTSP prototype lab in EPISD was built by technology coordinator Alan Hodson in the fall of 2002. With support from TIS and the principals at Lincoln and Richardson Middle Schools, full functioning labs were first deployed in the Spring of 2003. By the next school year (2003-04), Guillen Middle School had acquired servers and thin clients, and both Ross and Morehead Middle Schools had fully functional typing labs built around the K12LTSP model.