The same desktop every time
Every student PC starts with the same desktop and applications. A restart clears what the previous class left behind.
For your school
A Linux computer lab, run from one PC.
One PC in the room, the controller, installs and updates every student PC over the school network, and each PC opens the same clean desktop at every start. The school pays no licence for the system and keeps its lab configuration in its own hands.
- Licence
- Free and open source (MIT)
- Hardware
- Runs on 64-bit PCs with UEFI
- Windows
- Can stay on a second disk
- Support
- On GitHub Discussions
What changes
What changes for the school
Students find the same room at every lesson, and the technician looks after it from one PC.
The classroom view from the teacher’s desk
The teacher sees every student screen and, on the PCs they choose, can lock screens, share their own, collect the files on students’ desktops, pause Internet or show a message. They can also switch PCs off, and on where each PC’s BIOS allows it, without administrator access.
Nothing to license
Nixorium is open source under the MIT license. NixOS and the applications in the software profiles are free as well.
Installed and updated from the controller
Student PCs install and update over the school network from the controller, without Internet of their own.
Requirements
What the school needs
A trial with two PCs comes first. The rest of the room follows once the first student PC works.
- Two PCs that can be erased
- One becomes the controller, the other the first student PC. Installation erases the disk confirmed on each PC: back up anything you need first.
- 64-bit PCs with UEFI
- For the controller and for the student PCs.
- A network where the PCs reach each other
- The controller and the student PCs must reach each other on the school network.
- Internet on the controller
- Only the controller needs it: it downloads the updates, serves them to the student PCs and, from Internet time servers it must be allowed to reach, gives them the time.
- Permission for network boot
- Installing from the network needs UEFI network boot on the PCs and permission to run a network-boot service beside the school’s DHCP server. Where that is not possible, PCs install from a USB stick.
- Someone at each PC during installation
- Nothing installs unattended: at each PC, a person confirms the disk to erase.
Costs
What it costs
Nixorium works fully without Assistant. The only paid part is optional.
Free
Nixorium, NixOS and the applications in the software profiles are free and open source.
€360 / lab / year + VAT
An AI helper for custom changes to the lab. One subscription per laboratory, whatever the number of PCs; 30 requests free to try.
Electronic invoice, bank transfer
Italian electronic invoice through SDI. Schools that cannot pay by card can order and pay by bank transfer: write to [email protected].
Data and privacy
Which data stays in the school
Facts about where data goes, for the school’s own privacy assessment. Nixorium sends nothing outside the school unless the administrator turns on one of the optional services below.
- Accounts
- Accounts are local to the lab: there is no per-student login and no central directory.
- Student files
- The student home resets at every boot. The last five sessions stay on that PC as local snapshots, which are not backups: work that must last is saved elsewhere.
- Classroom view
- While the teacher watches, each student PC shows GNOME’s screen-sharing notice, which students cannot hide. Screens never leave the school network.
- Adoption statistics
- Optional and off by default; only the controller’s administrator can turn them on. They carry the version, a lab-size band and a pseudonym that changes every month, with no names, addresses, files or screens.
- Assistant (optional)
- When the administrator uses it, the messages and the configuration files it reads go to the Assistant service and its AI model provider, which may process them outside the EU; recognized passwords and keys are filtered out first. Message texts are kept for 30 days; whole conversations for 90 days, only if the administrator reports an answer or turns on sharing, which is off by default.
- Processing agreement
- For Assistant, a data processing agreement is available on request. The privacy policy lists every service, provider and retention period.
Roles
Who does what, and how long
The technician’s first installation is the demanding part; after that, routine work runs from a guided menu.
Technician
Installs the controller and one student PC first, checks a restart and an update, then installs the rest of the room. In the first lab, reinstalling all 30 PCs took about one hour: a historical observation, not a benchmark.
Teachers
Sign in to the controller with a teacher account and use the classroom view. They need no administrator access, and their controls do not change the lab configuration.
Head teacher and school office
Authorize the network change for network boot and the erasure of the PCs to install, and decide where work that must last is kept.
Next step
Try it on two PCs before deciding.
Write to us about your lab: we reply with what to check before the first installation and how to start with two PCs. Our email: [email protected]. The installation guide for your technician: nixorium.org/get-started/