Re: While of on the subject of ideas for programs.

[Ray Olszewski <ray@comarre.com>]

This is an interesting idea, and I think it is easier to do than many of you
seem to assume (or, to be more exact, the parts you seem to think are hard
are in fact fairly easy - for me, the hard part would be identifying the
actual applications to use, but other on this list seem quite expert there). 

Here are a few options.

1. Build a 100 meg distribution based on Zipslack. This is a Slackware
variant (included on the Slackware CDs) designed to fit on a 100 meg
Zipdisk. It would need to be customized - take out a lot of the devleopment
tools to make room for the X server itself and the applications. Maybe in
the end you wouldn't fit in 100 megs, but you'd make 150 megs.

The problem with this idea isn't disk space; it's memory. 16 megs isn't much
for running X and any interesting apps. I can't say for sure without a list
of candidate apps, but I suspect memory would be big trouble.

2. Cluster machines into small networks. For example, get an 8-port hub and
network 7 workstations to a server. The workstations get set up as X
terminals, an off-the-shelf setup documented at a couple of site on the Web.
The server then runs the apps. For this, I'd upgrade the server to 32 megs,
and perhaps the hard disk space to 300 megs, both by cannibalizing a ninth
machine, so there's no actual cost for that part. The cost here would be for
the hubs, cables, and perhaps for NICs for the machines, maybe a total of
$200 per cluster. 

3. If the $200 per cluster is too much, do the same things with serial
ports. Run 2 or 4 workstations to one server (depending on how many serial
ports you can get in the server), using ppp to make the links. Again, the
workstations are X terminals, and the server runs the aps. With only 2to 1,
you probably don't need to enhance the server's memory, though even 4 to 1
would benefit from doing so.

As to making the CDs ... I haven't burned CDs myself, but I have friends who
have, and they generally say it is easy if you have the appropriate
equipment. Creating a "distribution" to go on the CD should be easy in a
mechanical sense. Start with Slackware (my distribution of choice for
situations involving weird, old hardware), or perhaps Debian, and add the
apps in the format appropriate to the choice of base distribution. The main
work would be writing a decent install script.

I tried to work up some interest in this sort of idea almost 3 years ago,
back when I was still working in education. I couldn't get enough interest
locally even to get the equipment to do a prototype ... everyone I spoke
with thought their time was better spent trying to get newer equipment
donated, so I gave up and went back to my day job. But if there's interest
.... too bad Bob and I are on opposite coasts.

At 08:46 PM 7/4/99 -0400, Rob Bellville wrote [in part]:

>>> As a system administrator for a public school, here is what I feel my
>>> school can use. It is a little askew of simply Linux programs. I am
>>> fortunate to have a number of 386 and 486 donated machines sitting and
>>> waiting for this idea to become reality. Pardon me if I speak as a
>>> demanding customer for a minute. <grin>
>
>>> I need to take my low end machines and make them do something useful. No
>>> one likes to use DOS or DOS word processors in my school. The staff is busy
>>> trying to educate kids, not learn the old ways of technology. We've
>>> introduced them to Win95 years ago after we took their Macs away and now
>>> that is what they expect to see.
>>
>>> What I would LOVE to see is a CD-ROM and a boot floppy that installs a
>>> small Linux distribution with 6-8 useful programs (~100 MB) that can be run
>>> in small RAM footprint 16 color VGA XWindows session.

------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
Ray Olszewski                                        -- Han Solo
Palo Alto, CA  94303-3603    	 	        ray@comarre.com        
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