So my sister is working at a school where the computers are in a shocking state.
All infected with viruses, spyware and malware. The machines either crawl along or are incredibly unstable. Some of them run some sort of virus protection program and I’ve seen one or two computers running two different anti-virus programs. On my travels I have seen countless infected Windows machines. It’s incredible!
And the worse thing about it, is that the Free Software geeks and outfits can’t seem to capitalise enough on it.
So what can I do? The Computer Scientist. Well, not a lot. For example all the Windows machines are in Korean. I can’t figure out how to change win32 language. Can you?
Plus, I don’t want to re-install Windows. I want to deploy some Linux based solution.
So what are the requirements? They need to :
* print timetables (via a crappy Epson inkjet) with something like Office
* be able to play macromedia based games
* use a browser
That’s it. It also can’t be more complex. No username or passwords please. We don’t want to have to train people to use a new system. Must be simple.
Oh diddums. Can Director macromedia kid games be played in Linux? I don’t think so. Oh I wish these kids’ software was on a N64 or something.
There is only like 10 PCs in this school and installing them with Linux would take quite a bit of my time. I need some sort of centralised control tower where I can control deployment of my own customized Ubuntu based distro.
I know very well about SkoleLinux but it is simply too complicated. No need for email. Outsource to Gmail and hosted service. Must be simple.
All I can think of will be complex and painful. Grrr…
Well,
if you would be using redhatt/centos/Fedoracore.. it would have kickstart support so it would be very easy to install n+1 computers. Just boot with kickstart and let the magic happen.
Also, redhat/centos is suppose to be stable distribution, unlike ubuntu. Because there doesn’t seem to be anykind of administration for computers, then I recommend using distribution which is supported for years to come – unlike ubuntu/debian.
- Joose
I know it is in spanish, but it is easy to be followed: Take a look at http://www.educarex.es/linexcolegios
Three characters for three levels of primary education, with their customized desktop and applications, more than 2 gb in games and educational tools, and a lot of tools to make teachers life easier. As you said in your post: one click to login, no passwords for students, and ldap and nfs for the teachers home who have mobility across the school classrooms.
We have begun this week to install this customized linex (a debian based distribution: it’s dcc in the heart but with the educative an desktop applications backported from sid). It’s being installed in 20.000 desktops pc and more than 500 servers. It has a pyramidal structure, so I can put a line with a instruction in my server and next time one, a school or all the pc starts up will made the changes I prepared.
And the instalation: a clonation with mondoarchive and a script in the first boot that asks for some network parameters in the server, and only for a name in the desktop. 25 minutes and a school with 40 pc is ready.
You can see a flash demo of the desktops at http://www.itais.net/linexcole.swf
Obviusly: it’s Debian, so changing the locales you will get it in any language
Ooh.. Starting with a distrowar is a great way to improve Linux penetration in chools – NOT!!!!
Debian has “kickstart-like” automatic installation support via d-i and preseed file or for more complex setups FAI. Since you want to be a Debian Developer, and free software happens only via people scratching their own itches, and automatic installation is your itch, why not join the effort to make those tools better?
THAT is much more productive solution than participating in distrowars..
I’d strongly recommend going with LTSP and Ubuntu or Debian. Get a beefy central server, (maybe 1 gig ram for 10 clients) and set up a thin-client network. Then, all the computers are like the central server, and it is very easy to manage…
Please email me if you are interested in how to set it up, I’ve done it several times.
Ebox seems also far too complex : http://www.ebox-platform.com/features
Firewall – Done by cheap hardware
Fileserver – I’d rather get a seperate netapp
Mail – outsource that to a hosting company or Google http://slashdot.org/articles/06/02/11/1421200.shtml
Jabber – Outsource to a hosting company (dreamhost) or google
DNS cache with Bind? Surely there is a simpler way…
Date and time server – this should be done by the router
VLAN – another feature of the dedicated router box
A lot of features in ebox are just bloat to me. I want a lean mean solution that’s easy to deploy to lots of computers.
On the topic of LTSP. LTSP doesn’t take advantage of the client’s hard drive and other client resources. That’s silly.
Every PC has a hard drive. It is folly not to use it.
Efficient use of client resources makes client machines startup etc. so much faster and the whole experience much more responsive.
Admittedly right now, LTSP solutions are much easier to deploy. Though hopefully d-i efforts will change that.
Hendry, eBox is modular, you could install it from our Debian based installer and then, remove every module you don’t need (except the firewall one).
About DNS cache server, could you find any way to do it in a more simple way that “apt-get install bind9”? 
We are using bind9 so we’ll improve this module to work as a full capable DNS server.
Anyway, ebox maybe is not the best choice to fit your needs, but keep an eye on it
Well there is a simpler and more secure DNS option. My maradns package !
apt-get install maradns
Anyway, I think most Access Points (router, whatever) do DNS caching.