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RE: [LUG] knoppix



	Jonathan Said

	>But perhaps if you could document your solution a bit, maybe I
could persuade 
	them to at least think about a Linux thin-client solution.  Although
without 
	someone motivated "on the inside" (to my knowledge), I guess it will
still 
	never happen...

      Im very lazy when it comes to documentation, ( I tend to do things 100
times ++) until I have got it sused, but I will endevour to produce some
documents. Most of what I have done with Thin-Client is proof of principal.
Happily Churston are giving me the opportunity to test out and learn the
niggles of thin client, while giving them an opportunity to evaluate Linux,
so its a win win situation. 

It sounds like you have already found a champion for Linux (thin-client) in
yourself. I dont know what subjects you are studying but perhaps you could
suggest setting up a K12LTSP server & clients as a student project for the
IT students ? Just a thought. If you can persuade the powers that be to
release a few old machines as clients and stump up for a test server, hub
and network leads you should be able to get a proof of principal up and
running.

> Lockdown....

I have mixed feelings about lockdown too. However the policy is not to stop
them from changing wallpaper or putting icons in their perferred locations
its more of a case of not making it easy for them to wander into areas the
Administrator doesnt want them going into.

	>Perhaps there is a business opportunity here - replace/augment the
(generally) 
	rubbish windows systems they already have with a powerful linux
server, some 
	VIA Eden/TFT-panel based thin clients and a reasonably low-latency,
well 
	designed 100Mbs Ethernet network.  And why not sell it on being
*better* 
	rather than just cheap - and from my experience, that shouldn't be
too 
	difficult!

Funnily enough Howard  @ Churston is looking into using VIA mini-itx based
boards to run as clients, hes got a supplier who is sending him 2 pre-built
clients @ ~  £120 (each that is). But I see two markets here. Firstly you
can now buy thin clients and secondly schools get old equipment donated, due
to licencing and data protection issues they have to be supplied with
hardisks either removed or wiped, so ideally these are an easy target for
deployment as thin clients. 

Besides cost and better usage issues, thin clients reduce power consumption
(and therefore polution). The VIA board is powerful enough to be configured
as a "middle client" with different "levels" of thinnes applied (but still
run diskless). I dont know what the power consuption statistics are on a
hard disk but even if you multiplied the most conservative estimate by
number of employees with computers, you can quickly argue the case based on
environmental issues alone, thus thin client = green computing (IMO).

Tom.

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> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Jonathan Melhuish [SMTP:jon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent:	01 May 2003 23:12
> To:	list@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject:	Re: [LUG] knoppix
> 
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> On Tuesday 29 Apr 2003 10:15 am, Brough, Tom wrote:
> > I took 1 weeks leave from TC last week and spent a couple of days with
> > Howard Lunn @ Churston Grammer. We managed to set up a LTSP (using
> K12LTSP)
> > server and a couple of clients, as a proof of concept. We also managed
> to
> > get authentication through the exisiting NT PDC (thanks for the tips
> Simon)
> 
> It would be *so* great if we could get something like this at Exeter
> College.  
> They seem to have been experimenting with thin clients a bit, using old
> hardware, but it's 100% Windows and, TBH, doesn't work particularly well
> :-(
> 
> But perhaps if you could document your solution a bit, maybe I could
> persuade 
> them to at least think about a Linux thin-client solution.  Although
> without 
> someone motivated "on the inside" (to my knowledge), I guess it will still
> 
> never happen...
> 
> I'm not sure I agree with your urge to "lock everything down" - they've
> attempted to do this with the new Win2000 installation at my college and I
> 
> find it really annoying, not least because they've also set it up to 
> reinstall the programs every time you launch them, thus switching back on
> all 
> the annoying bits of Office (like that fscking paperclip!) *every* sodding
> 
> time >:-(
> 
> Personally, I see no reason why users can't be given free reign over their
> own 
> personal settings.  I think the users would be far more endeared to the
> system if they are able to personalise their own space.  I can see you
> might 
> want to stop people using porn as their desktop wallpaper, but I guess
> ought 
> to be dealt with on a individual basis!
> 
> Perhaps there is a business opportunity here - replace/augment the
> (generally) 
> rubbish windows systems they already have with a powerful linux server,
> some 
> VIA Eden/TFT-panel based thin clients and a reasonably low-latency, well
> designed 100Mbs Ethernet network.  And why not sell it on being *better*
> rather than just cheap - and from my experience, that shouldn't be too
> difficult!
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Jon
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
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> =n558
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
> 
> 
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