[frgeek-michiana] Re: Lab Notes, 2/7/2006
- From: Richard Zimmerman <ke4rit@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: frgeek-michiana@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 08 Feb 2006 23:42:27 -0500
John Mansfield wrote:
Hi Goose,
I will jump on the band wagon.
Cool, that makes two for the OS committee!
I am blind though, I know Microsoft not much Linux.
Cool, M$ is *NOT* my strong suit.
Several thoughts come to mind from previous conversations...
1. Can Microsoft boot the Netvistas as remote clients and run them
directly from M$ with Terminal server?
*** OR ***
2. Are we talking about booting into LTSP, running M$ and Terminal
Server under Vmware on the server and then using Rdesktop to access a
Windows session?
<personal thought>
This seems like suicide to me... I dunno, the M$ guys would know better
on the needs for M$ / TS...
</personal thought>
An after thought to this... If it turns out we need to install M$ as a
bootable partition on the server. (That's my guess for best performance)
*KEEP* the OLD LTSP server around to boot the Netvistas and login into
TS by using Rdesktop for that. Once everything is booted and Rdesktop is
loaded on all the workstations, the system load is basically network
traffic. That might be an idea... Yes, were gonna KILL that old LTSP
server while everything loads but once done everything should work ok???
(Stagared startups come to mind - Instructor starts a row at a time?) To
help facilitate that, a common Rdesktop login with a script to directly
execute Rdesktop and bypass a Linux desktop all together????? After all,
it would be a Windows based class! <grin>
***OR***
3. Are we talking about making the Netvistas dual-booting? It that
possible? Can Windows mimic bootp and send a windows OS to the Netvistas?
And think, that's just the Microsoft issue... Think about how much were
all fixing to learn.... I love it!
As far as the distro I vote for Redhat, Suse, or other for starters.
That would be my preference but what about you other guys.
OK, we got 4 in the ring right now.. Slackware, Debian, RedHat (Fedora)
and Suse.. Any others?
Slackware:
I know that Slackware / LTSP combo is doable and works
Tom swears by Slackware!
Debian:
I know that Debian / LTSP combo is doable and works
I (Goose) swear by Debian!
LTSP does have a couple of oddball config issues with Debian but they
are well documented and does work. (As I discovered 2 weekends ago)
That's using the new LTSP 4.1
Debian 'Stable' is bullet proof but not 100% on the 'latest and
greatest' curve. I see this as good in the environment were looking at
deploying.
Security fixes are fast and accurate. Keeping up with security
patches... CAN BE DONE with a cron job!
<work experience>
I've got several 'Stable' and 'Testing' servers at the office. The
'Stable' installs give me *NO* problems on updates. 'Testing' has given
me issues on updates but nothing that 'breaks them'. Just more work
checking up after them. I'm currently planning to move all my servers to
'Stable'. The Goose Lab is already on 'Stable'.
As far as updates using cron... Jobs would run nightly... I would login
once a week to catch up the updates that required 'human confirmation'.
On the Stable systems, never any issues (unless the kernel or glibc
libraries were being patched), on testing, ended up looking several
times a week to the point I now manually run the updates again on those
systems.
</work experience>
Debian basically has 3 levels:
Stable - Rock solid but *NOT* cutting edge
Testing - Pretty damn reliable and more cutting edge (fair amount of
updates / changes - Averages like 15 packages a week) I'll watch it
closer and gather stats.
Ran an update on 'Testing' for a work server I've been holding a few
days due to traffic levels.. 33 updates in a week. I would say 'Testing'
is almost as good as
'Stable'. Why? More keeping an eye on it with the volume of updates.
Not a bad thing, just a little more work.
Unstable - Bleeding edge and sometimes your on your own til they fix it
(often compared to Fedora)
Security: All three levels have VERY GOOD security patching now. (Wasn't
true last year, only stable, unstable ad security patches)
On the 'Testing' systems, I use the 'Testing Proposed' (read release
candidates) security releases... Solid as a rock, no issues.
RedHat (Fedora):
I have not read up on them lately but I seem to recall that the K12LTSP
group was having problems with reemerging LTSP into Fedora.
Anyone?
Considered 'bleeding edge' - Testing grounds for RHEL products.
Suse:
Don't know... Anyone?
Goose just tell me what I can do for you.
Thanks,
John Mansfield
Since your an M$ guy, can you take some time to research the M$ /
Netvista issue(s)??? That would be awesome. Can a Microsoft OS shove a
bootable OS to the Netvistas using bootp (or similar) like Linux? We
also have M$ licensing issues to look at... The cost of said licenses?
I know Mike expressed interest but I don't recall his answer for
participation on the OS committee. Mike?
We already know Tom said no to being on the OS Committee? But his
comments are noted above. Any other comments Tom?
Rick?
Anyone else?
I figure Tuesday we can discuss it while working on FreeBoxes... Oh
wait, the parts might all be in. We might be building / learning about
the server instead!
Goose
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