A big thanks to Joseph Hartman, San Diego, California for making me aware of his blog. He's trying hard to accomplish a similar project to myself using Ubuntu and LTSP. Just like me he's coming across many obstacles and one by one he's managed to overcome them.
He recently posted a great metaphor for his reasoning in using FOSS:
Understanding Operating Systems through the metaphor of automobiles
His full blog can be found here:
Hartman's Blogtastic Blog
I'd sure like to hear from anybody else who's doing a similar thing to our two primary schools, as they say - many hands make lighter work!
I came across a few tools today to ease the setup of common Ubuntu addons. Commonly installed applications & drivers like ATI and NVidea drivers can now be installed with just a few clicks.
These two programs are a great addition to an install of Ubuntu. It saves time having to go through the repositories and find the additional utilities often required. Easy Ubuntu is easy, graphical and safe.
Here is a screenshot:
This is what Easy Ubuntu does:
Multimedia
- Enhance video player: Install a better multimedia backend (totem-xine replace totem-gstreamer)
- Free Codecs: Add Support for playing mp3 and other non-free formats
- Binary Codecs: Add support for proprietary video and audio formats (w32codecs) (only x86)
- libdvdcss: Read commercial and encrypted DVDs
- MIDI: Add support for playing midi files
Web
- Flash: Enable the Macromedia Flash plugin (only x86)
- Java: Enable the Java plugin (Sun Java for x86, amd64) (IBM java for ppc)
- Videos: Enable viewing videos embedded in webpages
Archives
- RAR: extract and create RAR archives
- ACE: extract ACE archives
- 7-Zip: Extract 7-Zip archives
System
- Repository list: Main, Universe, Multiverse and PLF (replace your previous sources.list)
- Fonts: Install Microsoft and other nice fonts
- DMA: Enable Direct Memory Access to improve DVD reading (breezy)
- Nvidia: install the official driver to enable 3D on Nvidia graphics cards
- ATI: install the official driver to enable 3D on ATI graphics cards
Voice Over IP
- Wengo: a free Voice Over IP software (available in dapper)
- Skype: the most popular VoIP software (only x86)
Another application that does a similar thing but is apparently more configurable is Automatix. See the screenshot below:
To see a list of what Automatix is capable of installing:
http://getautomatix.com/wiki/index.php?title=Software_and_Tweaks
Nabb saw it's first small influx of Year 5 children using the the Ubuntu thin clients. They were very impressed.
There were 6 children in all, I told them how to log in to the machines and then left them to explore! They were engrossed by what it had to offer. Given free reign, they obviously went straight for the games. They loved the variety that Ubuntu had to offer and word quickly spread when one of the children found snake.
In an effort to explore their creative potential, I pointed them in the direction of Tux Paint, a basic but feature rich paint program primarily for KS1 & 2 children. I showed them how to use the stamp feature (readily created images) and they were engaged until break time.
A screenshot of Tux Paint.
They wanted to remain in the library through break time, so I let them, encouraging them all to experiment with the applications offered by Ubuntu. Experimentation will never become a problem with the thin client system and I can remain confident that I'll never 'fix' anything again, as administrative tasks are locked down by default.
In contrast, I've just spent two days locking down Windows Server 2003 whilst effectively allowing all our pupils and staff access to their own personal XP environment! Each user now has their own username and password, therefore allowing access to their own personal My Documents. They also have the ability to customise applications and the desktop the way they want. Personalisation is something all kids love - take ring tones and wallpaper on mobile phones for example!
Today proved successful for Holmfirth. We managed to get the opportunity to evaluate three different models of thin clients, the HP t5125 the IGEL 2110 and IGEL 3210. I look forward to setting up our first mini thin client network.
I was advised by a friendly woman from Thin Store which model would better suit our needs.
My first requirement was the size, it had to fit on the back of a monitor. My second was its ability to boot from the network - this feature was called PXE. My final requirement was it's cost.
I was recommended the 3 models and was told they would all fit on the back of a monitor, although size is not too important at this stage.
Our aim would be to scale down in size as much as possible given a budget of between £100 - £200. An overall budget of £250 - £350 per machine would be realistic given the price of monitor, keyboard, mouse and cables. 4 computers could be purchased for £1000, this price will only decrease given time. At this stage I'd like to experiment with LTSP. I've looked into using an open source operating system called Ubuntu Linux, this has a tremendous amount of support and is of course without any added license fees.
I've previously installed Ubuntu Server on a Pentium 4, 1GB Ram PC @ nabb. As yet I have not setup LTSP. I have recently discovered that the server version of Ubuntu is unnecessary so have installed Ubuntu as well in a dual boot fashion. This can later be amended.
Now I look forward to reading through various resources to get the system working and start experimenting. Information on setting such a system up is available given google keywords 'ubuntu' and 'ltsp'
Thin client models
HP t5125
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/12454-12454-321959-338927-89307-472257.html
IGEL 2110
http://www.igel.com/igel_rubrik/powerslave,id,52,nodeid,52,p,0,_language,en.html
IGEL 3210
http://www.igel.com/igel_rubrik/powerslave,id,53,nodeid,53,p,0,_language,en.html
Thin client sales
http://www.thinstore.net/
PXE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboot_Execution_Environment
LTSP
http://www.ltsp.org
Ubuntu Linux
http://www.ubuntu.com