CHANGES IN COMPUTING: A BOLD NEW DIRECTION

by Kevin Marinelli, Systems Manager

This past year has seen some of the most dramatic changes in our computing environment since the Mathematics Department first started using computers.

The last large-scale computing change in the department was in 1998/1999 when we changed our computing infrastructure from Sun/SGI UNIX computers to Dell computers running Linux. This change was a major cost effective choice for the department at a time when we had limited funding from the State for addressing Y2K computing issues. New Dell computers cost one-fifth of what a new Sun or SGI workstation would cost, which meant that it was possible to put new computers in every faculty and graduate student office.

Five years is a lifetime for a computer, and our Dell computers had started to show their age. Disk drives, video cards, RAM and other components were failing by the spring of 2003. That was the least of our problems, however. RedHat, the distributor of the version of Linux we use, sent out two announcements with serious negative implications for us. RedHat's first announcement was that they would support a distribution of their operating system for a period of 12 months only. Any version older than 12 months would no longer receive support. It is exceptionally difficult to plan for a complete operating system overhaul and user retraining every 12 months in a University. It is an inefficient use of people's time and a serious inconvenience to their work, and the transition time for RedHat operating system changes came at the worst possible time of the year for us, immediately before final exams.

The second announcement by RedHat was the termination of the distribution of the free version of their operating system. Their new payment schedule is $150 per computer per year. With approximately 120 Dell computers in the department using Linux, this was an enormous detrimental blow to our departmental budget.

Approximately 6 months was spent doing analysis and testing to work out a plan to upgrade our aging Dell computers and deal with all of the associated issues. Much care and time was put into determining the deficiencies, strengths and opportunities that we have encountered with our Dell/ Linux systems. The planning showed that we had serious deficiencies in dealing with PeopleSoft (student academic records, class rosters, etc.) and sharing Microsoft documents with others in the University.

We knew that we could not continue with RedHat Linux. A number of other distributions of Linux (Suse, Mandrake, Debian) were tested in the late spring and early summer of 2003. Each had a deficiency that caused one of our critical applications or tasks to fail. We have a commitment to stay with UNIX/Linux as an operating system and decided to look into Apple computers more seriously because Apple adopted FreeBSD UNIX as the core of their operating system technology in 2000.

The plan was submitted to the CLAS Dean's office and was reviewed carefully, especially the funding section of the proposal. The Dean knew that we needed to have our computers replaced because they were getting old and that we had serious operating system viability issues. After his careful consideration, we received $250,000 to fund the purchase of 75 new Apple G5 computers with flat panel displays. It is expected that the new computers will be sufficient for Department use until about 2008.

The Apple computers also have a number of apparent deficiencies. They lack a 3-button mouse that makes using a computer more efficient. Matlab, one of our critical applications, is distributed from MathWorks with an unsuitable user interface environment. The investment of funds and time to learn system management of Apple computers is quite significant. After more careful examination, we were able to overcome each of these stumbling blocks. Logitech makes an affordable and excellent 3-button mouse that is Macintosh compatible. We worked out how to install and use Matlab under Apple's more efficient X-window graphics interface system. And finally, we made an arrangement with the UConn Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology to pay for training in exchange for helping them manage their Apple servers for a year.

All of the software that we have used to do research and teaching under Linux is available and works well on Apple Macintosh computers. Several programs and utilities work better under the new environment, such as LaTeX, compilers, and access to the PeopleSoft system. The user interface and tasks associated with using Macintosh computers are substantially different from Linux. To help make the transition, I offered a special section of Math 300 to incoming graduate students. Faculty members and senior graduate students also attended the class and assisted in sharing their new knowledge of Apple computers.

The transition is rocky for us at times as we overcome new and challenging technical problems. In general, now that we are almost a year into the transition, our computer environment works better, with fewer complaints about basic computer problems than any other time in the last 10 years. We still have a long way to go with learning, integrating and leveraging Apple's computer technology for our needs, but we have made excellent progress beyond what many thought would be possible with our choices.

Graduate Computer Lab, 11 Apple G5 computers, 1 Dell Precision Workstation