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 wired network where the PCs reach each other
- The controller and the student PCs must be connected by Ethernet cable and reach each other on the school network. Labs with Wi-Fi only are not supported.
- 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 hello@nixorium.org.
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 classroom view is open, each student PC shows GNOME’s screen-sharing notice. Screens never leave the school network.
- Adoption statistics
- Off by default. No names, addresses, files or screens.
Details
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)
- Only when used: its messages and the files it reads go to the service and are kept 90 days, unless switched off.
Details
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. Conversations are saved on the service for 90 days to find and fix mistakes in Assistant, unless the administrator switches this off in the Assistant settings. A separate abuse log keeps the latest message and the final answer for 30 days.
- Processing agreement
- For Assistant, a data processing agreement is available on request. The privacy policy lists every service, provider and retention period.
Classroom view
Privacy in the classroom
What the classroom view captures, shows and keeps. Facts for the school’s own privacy assessment.
- What is captured, and when
- The screens of every student PC it can reach, only while the view is open.
Details
While the classroom view is open on the controller, the screen of every student PC it can reach is captured and shown to the teacher. Capture starts when the view asks for a screen and stops within a minute of closing the view or minimizing its window. Students are not asked each time: the school informs them in its privacy notice.
- The indicator
- Students see an icon or a label while the view is open.
Details
While the classroom view is open, every student PC shows GNOME’s screen-sharing icon in the top bar, whether or not the teacher is looking at that PC. It disappears within a minute of closing the view. GNOME hides the top bar while a window is full screen (a video, a game); the PC then shows a small “Classroom view open” label in a corner instead. While the teacher controls a PC with their own mouse and keyboard, its screen shows “Teacher in control”. When the teacher saves a screenshot of a PC or collects the files on its desktop, that PC says so in a notice that fades after a few seconds.
- Where it travels
- Only over the lab network. Nothing goes to Nixorium or anyone else.
Details
The controller reaches each student PC over the laboratory’s own network, through its existing SSH access. The student PCs open no port for it and accept SSH only from the controller. No picture, file or name is sent to Nixorium or to anyone else; adoption statistics never include them, and Assistant is not part of the classroom view.
- What is stored, and where
- Screens are shown, not recorded. Files are written only when the teacher saves or collects them.
Details
Screens are shown, not recorded. The live pictures stay in the controller’s memory, one per PC. Files are written only when the teacher chooses “Save screenshot” or “Collect from students' desktops”: they go to the Nixorium folder of the teacher’s home on the controller and stay there until someone deletes them. The classroom view keeps no pictures or collected files on the student PCs. The classroom view does not log screens viewed, messages sent or files collected; the student PCs’ SSH service records the controller’s logins, as for any login.
- Who can use it
- The teacher and the administrator, on the controller.
Details
The teacher account and the administrator, on the controller. Students are not in the group that can open it and cannot open the teacher page. A PC captures whoever is signed in, teachers included.
- Identity
- Computer names, not student names.
Details
The classroom view shows computer names and their state, not student names. The laboratory uses one shared student account, and the controller discards its name. Screenshots and collected files are named after the computer. What a screen shows, such as a document or a web page, is captured as it appears.
- Turning it off
- The administrator can turn it off in the menu.
Details
The administrator can turn the classroom view off in the menu (Maintenance → Change settings → Classroom view). At their next update, the classroom view software is removed from the student computers.
Include this in the school’s own privacy notice to students and families. This is not legal advice.
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: hello@nixorium.org. The installation guide for your technician: nixorium.org/get-started/