Re: Setting up a bunch of boxen at a small school.
On Sunday 23 September 2001 08:50 pm, oivvio polite wrote:
> I might soon have to set up some 20 - 30 boxes supporting some 200
> students. They'll want to do word processing, browse the web, read mail.
be very very very very very careful of what you do here .....
First, please note that using Gnome will not help you because it is no where
near "ease-of-use" as KDE is. Browsing the web is no big deal because just
about any browser can browse the web. However, you might seriously consider
Konqueror. Unlike Mozilla, or Mozilla derivatives, Konq is pretty stable,
and does one amazing job on the internet when it comes to rendering HTML and
CSS code. (please note that Mozilla et al are progressing rapidly, however
there is no way to tell when they will reach a stage of prefect usablity.
For checking mail there are various clients. I myself use Kmail (for KDE)
however, there are the clients packaged with Mozilla, and Evolution for Gnome.
I know it might seem great and all to have them using Linux and most likely
KDE ... however remember one key word ... interpolaritability ...
Word Processing can get very very very "iffy". The problem is that these
kids might want to save their files, and be able to open them at home, or at
a friends house, or something. The serious problem with linux word
processing clients is that they either suck, or are amazing but have crappy
ability to import/export Microsoft file formats. There is Star office, which
is pretty good, and does have somewhat decent filters, however it sucks
because it is very much a CPU and memory hog. There is Kword part of the
KOffice suite, and it is pretty good, however it sucks because its filters
don't do very good of a job. The last, and major office suite for LInux is
whatever Applixware provides. Not only is Applixware decent stuff, but it
does have nice filters ot export and import Microsoft office file formats.
However it is closed source technology, and costs about 50 bucks a license.
>
> Of course any user should be able to log into his/her account from any box.
> What are my options here? Have all applications run from a powerful server
> and use boxen as X-terminals, run applications on boxen and store only home
> dirs on server...
I am a senior at my high school, and I'm one of two Unix sysadmins. We have
a pretty big network, that gets used by about 2800 students. We have about
400 computers ... each with either WindowsNT or Windows2000, and all the
applications (ms office) are installed locally on the actual machine.
However all authentication, and authorization are done by a primary Novell
Netware server using the Ldap protocol to provide compatibility with the UNIX
network. Additionally, all students save their work to the novell server, no
matter where they log in from (even from home!).
The novell server controls many aspects of the 400~ computers, including
printing, file sharing, rights to applcaitions, directory services, etc.
(this might be over kill for your needs). However, once again, all software
is installed locally on the machines themselves.
This network is pretty easy to maintain, however it does require lots of
licenses ot be purchased, and the amount of money spend adds up fast.
>
> I'm looking for a setup that's easy to admin remotely and involves zero
> fiddling with the individual boxen.
>
look into an application called Norton Ghost. What this app will let you do
is you can set up and install of whatever on one computer. And have the same
install mirrored to other computers .. so they all look and act the same.
This is what we use at our school. (so a room with 40 computers might only
take you about 2 hours to setup, which is pretty fast considering there are
40 computers there)
> All ideas are interesting but some ideas (that have actually been
> implemented and proven to work on a day-to-day basis) are more interesting.
>
read all of the above, and good luck :^)
Sunny Dubey
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