Need some input, please.
Howdy all!
We have a client who is installing a small LAN and we need a little advise
from folks who may have been in the same kind of a situation.
First some background information. The client is a small, private, not
for profit, elementary school. They have grades Pre-K through 8. About
130 students total. It's a nice school with a very positive curriculum.
The Board of Governors is very committed to providing the best education
possible. They have committed around $100K for the project. The project
consists of 16 PC's to be located in the Technology Center (a.k.a. Computer
Lab) and about 14 PC's in classrooms and offices. There is also to be a
file/print/application server for storing shared and personal information.
Internet access is also to be included in the project. The project co-
ordinator has agreed to the need of a firewall, so that is to be included
in the final proposal as well.
We initially specified Linux on the workstations and servers. Naturally.
However, the client feels that they must be able to run win32 applications.
This is a point on which we are unwilling and unable to be argumentative.
The client believes that Win32 support is a must, so it's a must.
Somewhere in the middle of our working with this client outside influences
have affected their attitudes. At this time they have specified NT as the
workstation and server(s) OS.
We are concerned about this choice, and this is the main reason for this post.
We feel that this school's interests would be best met by a solution that
allowed them to utilize their existing investment in software, which includes
Apple II, Macintosh and Win16 code.
Specifically, we are looking for a solution that support the existing code
and *any* future program that they may need to run. The project coordinator
has surfed the homepages of the various emulator projects and feels that
the percentages of software supported is not high enough to a
seamless environment.
While a Windows NT based solution will work for this client, we are concerned
that the additional software costs as well as the support costs makes their
goal nearly unobtainable.
Does anyone know of any solutions that would help us meet these needs?
All comments, questions and opinions welcome.
Thanks.
Chuck
--
Chuck Stickelman, Owner E-Mail: <stick@richnet.net>
Practical Network Design Voice: (419) 529-3841
9 Chambers Road FAX: (419) 529-3625
Mansfield, OH 44906-1302 USA
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