Messages

1

General Discussion / Re: Why I failed to "sell" Ubermix to my school

« on: May 03, 2014, 04:36:09 PM »

Wow, it's been that long since I posted?

I understand where you're coming from, but the sad thing is that watchful trust and exploration requre work on the admin's part. The Chromebooks just make everything easy, from administration to evidence for punishment.

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General Discussion / Why I failed to "sell" Ubermix to my school

« on: March 27, 2014, 12:42:51 PM »

You may remember me from yesteryear. I came asking for advice on what to tell my school's IT guy to convince him that Ubermix was better than Chrome OS (here). Now a new school year has started, I have a Chromebook sitting on my shelf charging, and I know what went wrong.

Here's what I tried to tell him:

1. Ubermix is easy to use and can easily be restored to factory without messing up personal files
2. Google Chrome can be installed to Ubermix and you gain all of the functionality of a Chromebook
3. The Ubuntu software library has loads of educational software

But that didn't work, and here I am today.

Ubermix needs a few things to be a viable competitor to a Chromebook to small schools: lockdown, remote app install, and snooping.

The Chromebooks make all of these tasks simple. First, lockdown. The school buys the Chromebooks, students sign in with their school's domain name, and they're locked in. Only a reset of Chrome OS can unlock them from the domain name. Students aren't able to sign in with any account other than a school account.

Next, snooping. The school account gives the admin the ability to see everything that happens on the Chromebook: Internet history, installed apps, etc. The admin can even disable Incognito mode so there's no way to browse the Internet privately on the device.

And finally, remote app install. All the admin needs to do is click a few buttons and a Chrome app can be broadcasted to the entire school.

If Ubermix can include all of these features stock, it will be more acceptable by most schools.

3

Q&A / Re: How is it better than (x)?

« on: May 15, 2013, 06:55:01 AM »

We are getting the Samsung ones, because they are cheap and have long battery life.

EDIT: Are there any applications that give the management options that Chrome OS has? If I can find that, I may have another chance.

ANOTHER EDIT: I am pretty sure that it's time to give up now. His arguments are that we need something that is easy for him to install apps on remotely, that kids are impatient and need something that boots in seconds, and that they need something that's extremely easy to use. I am at the top of my class rank and am good with computers, so he won't listen to any of my arguments.

4

How-to / Re: Installing

« on: May 14, 2013, 07:02:42 PM »

If that doesn't work, use option 4.

5

Q&A / Re: How is it better than (x)?

« on: May 14, 2013, 06:48:36 PM »

Well, it looks like it's over. I've lost. Next year, it's going to be Chromebooks because of their ease of management and cheap cost. Also, the school owns Google Docs accounts for all of the students, so that's probably a factor. I've tried to tell the IT person things about how the Chromebooks are limited and the web isn't full of rich applications yet (a direct quote from one of your blog posts), but he doesn't think that that is a factor. I actually sent a message straight to the Superintendent.  I am a student at the top of the class. Most students just want something that can get them online really fast. They don't care what's under the hood or anything like that. They don't have ambitions that extend outside of what they are doing in their classes (okay, okay. Maybe he didn't say that exactly...). So I came here to say that it is likely over. I enjoyed the vision of Ubermix in the classroom while it lasted.

I just wanted to say; I figured that my fight was pointless from the start.

6

Q&A / How is it better than (x)?

« on: May 08, 2013, 04:54:27 AM »

Our school has begun to get the ball rolling on a 1:1 laptop initiative, but it's rolling the wrong way! They want to get Chromebooks, but I see them as a $250 installation of Google Chrome (except without the app manager, which Ubuntu has Landscape for). We can get a $250 AMD laptop and put Ubermix on it, and have everything that the Chromebooks have and more. I've shown the school's IT guy Ubermix. I'm slowing the ball down to move it in the right direction, but it might as well be a boulder!

Is there anything else I can pitch to him to show him that Ubermix is better than a Chromebook for an education standpoint?

7

General Support / Re: [SOLVED] Error with installation: Cat and 2 others

« on: April 28, 2013, 10:48:58 AM »

It is strange behavior, but as long as an option worked, I'm happy.

8

General Support / Re: Error with installation: Cat and 2 others

« on: April 27, 2013, 07:55:06 PM »

SOLVED!

My problems were: 1. Wrong hard disk image (the one I used was too small)
2. Don't use options 1,2, or 3. Use option 4 to install.

9

General Support / [SOLVED] Error with installation: Cat and 2 others

« on: April 26, 2013, 09:03:51 PM »

Hello everyone, glad to be here, trying out Ubermix! Or at least trying to try out Ubermix. I am trying to install it into Virtualbox (silly me, never downloaded the ova and now I'm on a slower internet connection) and, well, it isn't woking.

My setup:
USB drive with IMG file applied to it in USB port
PloP boot manager to boot from the USB drive after attaching it to the VM


It boots the drive alright, tells me to press ESC to enter the menu, prompts me for 1-5, etc. However, when I try to image the system in any way, it throws a couple of errors that I hope someone can help me out with:

cat: read error: Input/output error
sh: -lt: argument expected
cat: read error: Input/output error
Imaging process complete[...]

and, of course, Ubermix doesn't actually start after rebooting. Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong?