[Opensource] Thin client....very cheap computing!

Tue Feb 24 22:15:33 EST 2009

Love to have you drop over Brett  .. I had a thought of running an
orientation after school one day. It has been a bit chaotic with too many
challenges to chew off at once but we are getting there. Perhaps I can put
on cofee, tea and cakes and invite a crowd over to showcase what we are
doing.

But dont just stop with thin clients .. we are now investing our efforts
towards building an opensource NAS storage solution. We are working through
the details with a company called Networkhelp who is helping us to bridge
this with our new souped up Novell server, Apple OSX server and of couse our
Sun Server. You probably saw some of their gear being used at the VITTA
conference to run the splendid little CyberKiosks. I like the Sun approach
that limits vendor lockin and works with open standards to build a working
enterprise solution. The idea is certainly catching on.
     http://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/sans/news/article.php/3766646

Regards Roland

2009/2/23 Brett Groves <groves.brett.g at edumail.vic.gov.au>

> Hi Roland
> Would there be any chance of imposing on you to have a look at the Sun
> terminal thin client when you are deploying? We wrote our eLearning plan on
> 73K and got 185K so my early ideas of using nComputing boxes to expand out
> our screens is probably not necessary. I am looking for a much larger
> implementation of thin client to go with and would love ideas.
>
> Thanks in advance
> Brett
>
>
> Roland Gesthuizen wrote:
>
>> Peter,
>>
>> we use Novell iPrint and it comes with a web based client that can be used
>> to deploy printers to linux, mac or win desktops .. all just a single
>> click!
>> Mapping drives is allways an issue but the problem only needs to be solved
>> once per site. In our case, students increasingly use of USB keys or
>> Novell
>> NetStorage to access their home directories or save thier work.
>>
>> Some our federal funding for computers is going towards a Sun Terminal
>> thin
>> clients that will be running a linux (Novell / Ubuntu) desktop, the rest
>> is
>> going to NetBooks and MacBooks.
>>
>> Regards Roland
>>
>> 2009/2/22 Peter Ruwoldt <ruwoldtp at gmail.com>
>>
>>
>>
>>> Excellent
>>> How did you go with getting access to and mapping drives to a windows
>>> server?
>>> Was printing an issue?
>>> Peter
>>>
>>> 2009/2/22 Brett Groves <groves.brett.g at edumail.vic.gov.au>
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>>
>>>> We had a major problem last year with trying to supply ICT support to
>>>> our
>>>> VCAL area last year as there was no budget available (sound  familiar?).
>>>> Stumbled across the fact that Ubuntu Linux comes with thin client
>>>> support
>>>> built in. We gutted 20 old Acer 5100's, removed the hard drives etc and
>>>> grabbed a spare 100Mbs 3Com switch and connected them all up. For a
>>>> server
>>>> we bought a very high end Acer PC for about $1300. We set it up over the
>>>> hols and it really does work impressively, exceeding all expectations.
>>>> There
>>>> is virtually no indication to users that they are working on a dumb
>>>> terminal
>>>> except there is no need to bother turning them off!
>>>>
>>>> So for about $1500 we kitted out a whole computer lab and we have no
>>>> worries about licences or paying for updates.....impressively cheap.
>>>>
>>>> If anyone on the list is looking for a solution like this to get
>>>> computer
>>>> access for students using all open source and mostly old hardware then
>>>> please feel free to drop me a line for help or you are most welcome to
>>>> pop
>>>> through the school to have a look at how it works in action.
>>>>
>>>> If you are worried about Linux as I was I managed to teach myself pretty
>>>> quickly how to configure the whole system using the resources on the
>>>> Edubuntu site and a bit of googling. I'm no uber-techie by a long way so
>>>> it
>>>> gives you some indication how simple Ubuntu at least is to play with.
>>>>
>>>> Brett Groves
>>>> ICT Manager
>>>> Croydon Secondary College
>>>> 03 9725 8277
>>>> groves.brett.g at edumail.vic.gov.au
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Important - This email and any attachments may be confidential. If
>>>> received in error, please contact us and delete all copies. Before
>>>> opening
>>>> or using attachments check them for viruses and defects. Regardless of
>>>> any
>>>> loss, damage or consequence, whether caused by the negligence of the
>>>> sender
>>>> or not, resulting directly or indirectly from the use of any attached
>>>> files
>>>> our liability is limited to resupplying any affected attachments. Any
>>>> representations or opinions expressed are those of the individual
>>>> sender,
>>>> and not necessarily those of the Department of Education and Early
>>>> Childhood
>>>> Development.
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>
>>>> http://www.edulists.com.au - FAQ, resources, subscribe, unsubscribe
>>>> Open Source Mailing List kindly supported by
>>>> http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment
>>>> Authority and
>>>> http://www.vitta.org.au  - VITTA Victorian Information Technology
>>>> Teachers Association Inc
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Free and Open education for all
>>>
>>> Peter Ruwoldt
>>> Grant High School
>>> Hosking Avenue
>>> MOUNT GAMBIER  SA  5290
>>>
>>> P. 08 87263128
>>> F. 08 87250173
>>>
>>> ruwoldtp at granths.sa.edu.au
>>> http://www.watiwara.com
>>> _______________________________________________
>>>  http://www.edulists.com.au - FAQ, resources, subscribe, unsubscribe
>>> Open Source Mailing List kindly supported by
>>>  http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment
>>> Authority and
>>>  http://www.vitta.org.au - VITTA Victorian Information Technology
>>> Teachers
>>> Association Inc
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> Important - This email and any attachments may be confidential. If received
> in error, please contact us and delete all copies. Before opening or using
> attachments check them for viruses and defects. Regardless of any loss,
> damage or consequence, whether caused by the negligence of the sender or
> not, resulting directly or indirectly from the use of any attached files our
> liability is limited to resupplying any affected attachments. Any
> representations or opinions expressed are those of the individual sender,
> and not necessarily those of the Department of Education and Early Childhood
> Development.
> _______________________________________________
>
> http://www.edulists.com.au - FAQ, resources, subscribe, unsubscribe
> Open Source Mailing List kindly supported by
> http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority
> and
> http://www.vitta.org.au  - VITTA Victorian Information Technology Teachers
> Association Inc
>

-- 
Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.edulists.com.au/pipermail/opensource/attachments/20090224/a23a2b41/attachment.html