Re: [school-discuss] Philosophy: Teachers with Admin Privileges or Not

[Michael Shigorin <mike@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, Oct 21, 2007 at 09:43:17PM -0700, marilyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> I think all student stations should be run with live CD/DVDs or
> other bootable media.  Data should be saved on flash drives or
> whatever (network storage would be OK too).  I think that
> student stations should not have OSs installed on them at all.
> 
> There should be numerous choices of live CDS.  They should be
> topical according to subject area.  They should include every
> possible relevant available Open Source Software Package.  They
> should already be setup to see the available printers or
> network account directories.  They should not include any
> system administration type software that could cause mischief
> anywhere.

It's all doable with virtualized terminal server as well, we've
been migrating from LTSP4 in one VPS to LTSP5 in another one
on-the-fly (for some time both were active and used).

There's need to provide either client-side boot menu or
server-side configuration utility which would reconfigure DHCP
to point different (or all) clients to their LTSP instances but
at least it's all doable (and netboot+TS is more complicated
still also more robust than CD shuffle...).

Overall: thanks for interesting ideas, list members; I'm
archiving the discussion but don't know if/when we're to get
to it, even if we're quite interested in helping universities
and schools in Ukraine with getting free software based education
in place.

> One of the main reasons I did not go with live CDs this year is
> that they all have too many mischief causing applications on
> them and I do not have the time and/or expertise to make my
> own.

Recently even major distros started to provide tools to remaster
a LiveCD, and some more obscure (like ALT Linux project I
participate in) provided these for years.

> It is almost midnight and I still have to finish my lesson
> plans.  Gotta go.

Thanks and good luck!

> The thin client thing is cool . . . but I would like this system better.

Well, thin client can be a bit more diverse too.

PS: http://wiki.ltsp.org/twiki/bin/view/Ltsp/SuccessStories#LTSP_inside_OpenVZ_on_Woodcrest

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