Daniel,
Why not try net-booting instead if local performance is a priority? It has
all the benefits of LTSP without the performance hit. We have two students
labs running net-booted linux and they have been marvelous.
The server requirements are modest - pretty much any machine with around
512MB RAM will do the job fine. All your network needs, for up to 25
client machines, is 100Mbit switched ethernet from the server to the
clients. No need to fuss with GB unless you already have it available.
The clients should have at least 256MB RAM with 512MB being nice but not
obligatory. The clients also do not need a hard drive - a big reliability
plus.
Most ethernet cards are now PXE capable which is how they contact the
net-boot server to initiate the boot process. In the first lab we did in
2001 the machines had the kernel on a compact flash card in place of the
HD. Since then we have migrated those machines to full net-booting with
PXE. We went straight to PXE net-booting in the second lab.
With a setup described above we have found the clients boot and run faster
in net-booted mode than if they were running off their local hard disk. We
have even tried booting the whole lab at once and found all machines up
and ready in about 5 minutes.
There are more details about the labs and our other OSS exploits here:
http://www.trinity.unimelb.edu.au/it/article.html
and here
http://www.trinity.unimelb.edu.au/lic/freedom/
Cheers,
Richard
Daniel,