Re: [school-discuss] Major Linux school deployments

[Benoit St-André <ben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To continue on the large scale deployment bit:

First, let me present myself, I am Benoit St-André, Educational Services
Director at Revolution Linux.

We have deployed large scale LTSP Thin Clients in various school districts
in Quebec, and various all Open Source Linux infrastructure in different
school boards and districts across Canada and the US.

Our largest install is Laval School Board that runs around 4000 Thin
Clients off a cluster of servers (around 40) from a central datacenter
using LTSP-Cluster technology (open source project available here:
https://launchpad.net/ltsp-cluster).

This is all centrally managed and deployed, so that you just plug in a
thin client in any school and it gets configured automatically. It also
uses all latest LTSP standard technology, such as localapps , that enable
using 3D applications and such to cut drastically bandwith usage, and
increase performance.

Even though they have a broadband network, the servers could be located in
schools as they are centrally managed and automatically provisionned too.

Hope that helps.
---
Benoit St-André            
Educational Services Director
Benoit.St-Andre@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://revolutionlinux.com
1-800-996-8955 , ext 1112

On Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:09:48 -0400, "Stewart Ives" <ivessm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> Dean,
> 
> Very Very impressive.
> 
> Are you keeping an eye on the newer Intel motherboards with the
integrated
> Atom processor.  I've seen these mounted in fan-less cases that hang on
the
> back of the flat screen keeping the desktop totally uncluttered.
> 
> Good luck.
> 
> stew
> 
> ---------- Original Message -----------
> From: Dean Montgomery <dmonty@xxxxxxxxxx>
> To: schoolforge-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:42:09 -0700 (PDT)
> Subject: Re: [school-discuss] Major Linux school deployments
> 
>> ----- "David M. Bucknell" <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> > This sounds fantastic.  Looking for client hardware.  Want to do  
>> > something similar, but am finding it hard to find decent thin client 
>> > hardware.  Too slow or limited.  Would love to hear how wrong I am.
>> 
>> Our diskless clients are ~$200 each - price goes up and down with 
>> the economy.
>> 
>> * MOBO: MCP6P M2+ 
>> * RAM: 1G
>> * CPU: AMD Sempron(tm) Processor LE-1250
>> * Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 6150 GPU
>> * http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/content.php?S_ID=370
>> 
>> ===
>> About 3-4 years ago we were re-cycling used computers as hybrid 
>> diskless-ltsp clients.  But we wanted to give end-users a better 
>> experience.  We now run pure diskless clients which gives us: * good 
>> 3d accelerated graphics support. * good sound/video 
>> create/listen/edit support. * good usb device support (thumb-drives, 
>> ipods, cameras, external dvd-drives, etc) * less bandwidth needed 
>> for diskless - compared to ltsp.
>> 
>> ==============
>> Below is a comparison list that we put together a while back...
>> 
>> === Implementing Linux in your School(s) ===
>> 
>> There are 3 options:
>> 1.LTSP – Linux Terminal Server Project.
>> 2.Diskless.  (with ability to run software on server)
>> 3.Fat Client.
>> 
>> #1 LTSP Pros:
>> -Easy to install and configure software.
>> -Been around a long time.
>> -Lots of related software and support.
>> -Supports very slow hardware with very little RAM.
>> -Supports 30-50 workstations per server.
>> -Installing software is easy - appears on all workstations.
>> #1 LTSP Cons:
>> -Can bog down the server.
>> -Sound and 3d acceleration do not work well.
>> -USB/Firewire/CDROM/Floppy etc can be tricky.
>> -Everything runs on the server so it can get bogged down with too 
>> much activity. -Screen flickers when scrolling or heavy graphical
games.
>> -Re-using old hardware means old hardware maintenance.
>> -Does not yet work well with wireless networks.
>> 
>> #2 Diskless Pros:
>> -USB/Firewire/CDROM/Floopy are nicely integrated in the desktop
>> environment.
>> -Server does not get bogged down.  Users are not affected by a 
>> single user's cpu intensive programs. -3d acceleration and sound 
>> work great as long as the cipset is supported by linux. -Hardware is 
>> faster/cheaper in 2007 (not forced to use slow hardware with 32MB 
>> ram). -Supports over 100 workstations per server. -Uses less network 
>> bandwidth.
>> #2 Diskless Cons:
>> -Requires faster hardware and more ram on the client.  800Mhz CPU, 
>> 500MB RAM min. -Relatively new for schools so there is not as much 
>> out-of-the-box support for diskless.  The technitian has to do more -
>> configuration. -Does not yet work well with wireless networks.
>> 
>> #3 Fat Client Pros:
>> -Relatively easy to create an initial image and ghost.
>> -USB/CDROM/etc hardware are nicely integrated into the desktop
>> environment.
>> -Low network bandwidth.
>> -Wireless network works well.
>> -3d acceleration and sound work well.
>> #3 Fat Client Cons:
>> -Updating software requires updating all hard drives (not 
>> centralized). -Changes and tweaks require addressing each workstation.
>> -- 
>> Dean Montgomery
>> Network Support Tech./Programmer
>> dmonty@xxxxxxxxxx
>> School District #73
> ------- End of Original Message -------

-- 
Benoit St-André
ben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx