BVS, First Private School to opt for Linux!!!

It may sound astonishing to many that in Nepal school computer lab runs on Linux. But it's true.
LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Projects) has already been running in 4 schools in Nepal (in Dang, Bhaktapur, Phulchowki, Myagdi). Several projects are still under planning. These projects were funded by HeNN (Help-Nepal) and MPP (Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya). Luckily, I was a part of the project in Bhaktapur funded by Help-Nepal.
But today (September 1, 2007) is a special moment in the FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) history of Nepal because today Brihaspati Vidya Sadan (BVS), Naxal, a reputed school in the capital got Linux installed in the PCs in its computer Lab. I was lucky this time too. I was part of this historic moment as well.

Around a month ago, we were in Brihaspati Vidya Sadan for the FOSS awareness program. We get presentation on what is FOSS, why use FOSS and blahh blahh. Mr. Pravin Joshi, the computer teacher had already been using Linux in his PC at home. He was so impressed and positive that he asked Shishir Dai (our senior and motivator) to help setup Linux in computer lab in the school. This must be the first in Nepalese history that school administration has approached for getting FOSS implemented in its lab. I must say even the students were really sharp and keen to try things. And, so we were there today to install Linux.
The computers didn't have cdrom so the installation method preferred was Net-Boot. Shishir dai configured his laptop for DHCP (Dynamic Host Communication Protocol) and TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol). And made the Ubuntu available on his apache server. While, Ujjwal helped debug the errors that occured, we (me and my classmates along with a junior Kulchandra) looked at the installation in the PCs. The computers, hence, were ready to install Ubuntu from Network. And now Linux co-exist on the PCs with MS-Windows. Though, some additional packages still need to be installed which will soon be done, the greatest achievement is at least students have something to start with and know that much exist beyond Windows.
For the qbasic programming (that is a part of the curriculum for computers), we will we installing dosbox and wine. Besides, we will have bluefish editor, gcompris suite and other stuffs.
Hats off to Pravin Dai, BVS, Shishir dai who have reached a milestone with this step and have set example for other schools. I wish this step helps government consider for a syllabus based on Free and open source rather than propritory.

Cheers