Open Source @ Meadville Public Library

John J. Brice, III

Executive Director

Who We Are

Rural Public Library serving 38,000

Collection 70,000

Annual Budget $800,000

20 Staff Members

Annual Circulation 240,000

Annual I.S. Budget $12,000

Number of Computers 64

Headquarters to nine member county system

Open Source Operating Systems

Red Hat

Mandrake

OpenBSD

FreeBSD

Open Source Application Programs (Server)

Amanda

Sqwebmail/Qmail

Apache

squid

SquidGuard

PostgreSQL

DansGuardian

LTSP

Ssh

Open Source Applications (Client)

GIMP

StarOffice

KDE - Windows Manager

Netscape

J-Pilot

OpenOffice

What does Free cost?

Documentation needs to be acquired

Training for system administration and staff

Support from a third party vendor

Developmental time and effort

Why do we use Open Source?

Cost effective

Able to determine own upgrade path

Able to use computers longer

Easy to replicate across many libraries

Reliability

More secure

Bang for the buck

The paper "Linux as a replacement for Windows 2000" is an example of an analysis comparing Red Hat Linux 7.1 to Windows 2000; in this

customer's case, using Linux instead of Windows 2000 saved $10,000. The reviewer came from a Windows background, and after performing an intensive Linux project lasting several months

determined that "you will be stunned by the bang for the buck that...open source software offers."

Cost Comparison Web Server

Microsoft: OS $1,510 (25 clients), Email Server $1,300 (10 client), RDBMS Server $2,100 C++

Development $500, Total $5,410.

Red Hat Linux $156, everything else included.

Upgrade Costs Less For Open Source

When upgrading Microsoft you will be at the mercy of their long term pricing.

Open Source upgrades are usually free and if the price does increase from one vendor there are

other vendors to turn to.

Open Source can operate on older hardware

Open Source can run on older hardware more effeciently than other OS's resulting in lower

hardware costs.

In some cases no new hardware is purchased because "discarded' systems can be used again.

Open Source is far cheaper to replicate

According to Nework World Fussion News, Linux is increasingly being used in healthcare, finance, banking, and retail because of its cost advantages when large number numbers of identical sites and servers are built. According to their calculations

for a 2,000 site deployment, SCO UnixWare would cost $9 million, Windows would cost $8

million, and Red Hat Linux costs $180.

Apache has better security record than Microsoft's IIS

Eweek's July 20, 2001 article examined Apache security advisories and found that the last serious

security problem was in January 1997.

Microsoft's IIS had issued 21 security bulletins from January 2000 through June 2001

Individual Solutions at MPL

Thin Clients for web browsing

Filtering/Routing

Firewalls

Web/E-Mail server

Backup server

File/Print server

Open Source desktops

Thin Clients

What is a Thin Client?

Two major differences:

Less Hardware

Gets operating systemfrom a server

Less Hardware

OS from a Server

Thin Client Hardware

Server: 512 MB RAM 750 mHz processor 15 GB hard drive 2 network cards Cost: $1485

Thin Clients 64 MB RAM 500 mHz processor 8 MB Ati Charger video

cards Bootable network cards

from DisklessWorkstations

Reused old cases & power supplies

Cost each: $327.75

Cost for Server + 7 Thin Clients:

$3779.25

Thin Client Software Setup

Red Hat 6.2

Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP)

Netscape Navigator 4.76

IceWM window manager

Adobe Acrobat, Macromedia Flash, Plugger

SquidGuard filter (residing on another server)

Thin Client Configuration

Each thin client has a user account assigned to it

Each user account has very limited permissions

Important configuration files are read-only

Thin Client Timeline

Began setup in June/July 2000

Put thin clients in place January 2001

Finalized setup February 2001

Running ever since without a hitch!

Filtering/Proxy Server

Proprietary vs. Open Source Filters

Proprietary

Expensive

Blacklists often unviewable

Don't always work as expected

WYSIWYG

Open Source

Free

Complete control of blacklists

More precise control of filter's behavior

More knowledge to install & maintain

Filters MPL Uses

SquidGuard - URL based filter(www.squidguard.org)

DansGuardian -content based filter(www.dansguardian.org)

SquidGuard

URL-based

Configurable for multiple user types

More precise control

Works through squid

Works on just about any OS

DansGuardian

Keyword-based

Configurable for only one user type

More likely to block sites

Can also filter file types & by ratings system

MPL's Filtering Setup

Firewalls

Invisible Firewall

Running on a used Sun Sparc 5 Station (purchased for less than $100)

Runs on Open BSD

Works as a very fancy patch cable

No speed degragation

No networkable addresses

Web/E-Mail Server

Web/E-Mail Server

Homebrewed computer running on a 1.33 gig 512 meg RAM server

OS-FreeBSD

Apache

Perl and PHP

PostgreSQL Database

Homebrewed Web OPAC

Qmail E-mail server

SQwebmail-Web based e-mail interface

Backup Server

Backup Server

Reused an old dual processor Pentium Pro 200, 128 meg RAM (purchased used tape drive off of E-Bay for $400.00)

OS-Red Hat (Linux) ver 6.2

Amanda-backup software from University of Maryland

Backup Windows, Linux and the BSD's

File Print Server

File Print Server

Currently developing a OS File/Print (used Sun Sparc 5 Station purchased for $100)

OS-OpenBSD

Samba - File/Print server software

Can replicate NT server

Will work with Windows Clients

Desktops

Clients

Hardware are home brewed computers with parts purchased through catalogs 1.3 Gigahertz with 512meg RAM, 20 gig harddrives. Cost $450.00

OS-Mandrake ver. 8.1 with KDE

Star Office ver 5.2

Netscape 6.2

J-Pilot - Handspring interface

K-Mail

Learning More

Visit our web site at:

meadvillelibrary.org/os