Linux at Duke

<p>As an incoming freshman and linux user, I'm a bit curious as to how linux-friendly Duke is. I know that Duke had or has a pretty active group of linux users who developed yum, so thats encouraging. However, I am generally interested which workstations on campus run Linux (any distro, but if you can specify, that would be great) and whether the computers not running Linux are fairly compatible. Also, how open are professors (in classes which may require e-mailed assignements that aren't just text) to Linux use. In wandering around the website for the Duke Linux group, I also got the sense that downloading the linux version of some software packages may be free because of the way their site-licenses are arranged. Can someone tell me if this is true, and for which packages (I am specificallz interested in MATLAB, Maple, Mathematica and Photoshop). My laptop is a pentium-based dual-boot system running Windows XP and Fedora Core 5. I can always use windows if there is a problem, but would greatly prefer not to.</p>

<p>All of the engineering labs run CentOS. There's one in Carr on East Campus, two in Hudson and Teer on the engineering quad on West Campus, and one in the social science building (that I've never been to). For MATLAB and Maple, you can run them off of one of the campus computers, but I don't think you can have a copy for your personal use installed on your computer for free. Mathematica I don't know about (I would bet its the same deal), and I haven't seen Photoshop on Linux on campus, just gimp.</p>

<p>Not sure what you mean by compatible, for non-Linux computers. The Macs all are on OS X so you can find a terminal in them (only thing I use them for), and the Windows machines all have Putty/PuttySCP/Xwin-32 on them, so if you want to work in Linux from a different computer, its possible. See labs:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.oit.duke.edu/ats/labs/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.oit.duke.edu/ats/labs/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Professors in engineering classes should always be Linux friendly - the intro to engineering class spends a decent amount of time doing intro-to-*nix-and-the-terminal, and from then onward most labs are done on Linux (the computers used to do data sampling through a DAC are Windows, but you're still just using Matlab, not a big deal) Outside Pratt you're probably not going to find too many people willing to accept PostScript or OpenOffice.Org formatted documents or XML or whathaveyou - some won't even accept assignments by email, but require physical printouts.</p>

<p>Personally I use WinXP and OpenBSD, though I'm thinking about giving Ubuntu a swing once my laptop gets repaired.</p>

<p>Im not too interested in the engineering labs as im not in Pratt. Mostly, the Physics building and the other Trinity or general access labs, and access on East campus (though I suppose you addressed that). When I was reffering to the site licensing question and installing those packages on a personal computer, it was based on this from the Linux@Duke webpage:</p>

<p>
[Quote]
Proprietary/non-free software
Duke University Site License allows us to distribute several packages which other distributions cannot include due to licensing restrictions. Examples of such software include Mathematica, Matlab, SUN Java 2, Acrobat Reader, and several others.

[/Quote]
</p>

<p>Well, the "engineering" labs aren't just for engineers, just some of them have engineering classes taught in them on occasion through the week, and there are no access restrictions on the labs beyond basic restrictions in place on all non-dorm buildings and rooms.</p>

<p>I haven't heard about that licensing information - email one of the people listed as a contact on the Linux@Duke webpage and ask them. Again, I don't think you can have a copy for personal use installed on your computer for free - it probably means that any Duke-owned computer (say, a workstation in some professor's lab) can get a license for that software without additional cost.</p>