WELS: [Welstech] thin client thoughts

Sun Mar 30 15:54:45 CDT 2008

Here's a great article from the Infinite Thinking Machine blog that ties 
into this discussion -

Promoting Digital Equality With Web 2.0
http://www.infinitethinking.org/2008/02/promoting-digital-equity-with-web-20.html

And another from WHDb -

The Top 50 Proprietary Programs that Drive You Crazy --- and Their Open 
Source Alternatives
http://whdb.com/2008/the-top-50-proprietary-programs-that-drive-you-crazy-and-their-open-source-alternatives/

Sallie Draper, WELS Technology Trainer
techtrainer at wels.net
414-455-1302
Take the WELS.net site tour:  www.wels.net/tour
Learn something new @ WELS.net University:  www.wels.net/university

1 Corinthians 15:58
Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm.  Let nothing move you.  Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Michael Plocher wrote:
> Hi Gail,
>
> Hopefully I get your questions answered in here somewhere.
>
> The solution we are using here at St. Paul's for our computer lab is 
> Linux based.  We are using Fedora Core 6 with the LTSP add-on.  There 
> is NO LICENSING whatsoever for each terminal session or for any Linux 
> software that we run.  If you have a Windows server and you have the 
> appropriate licenses for your Windows software, then by all means you 
> can legally establish sessions with your Windows server from your 
> clients to run Windows titles using various free or inexpensive 
> Windows (or Mac) emulators, etc.  But, you must have the Windows 
> licenses in order to legally do this.  As far as Windows sessions go, 
> the writers of LTSP have included the rdesktop package which provides 
> access to Windows 2000/NT4 terminal sessions with a click of an icon 
> on each users desktop.  Of course, this requires a separate W2K/NT 
> terminal server and once again, licenses for your clients.
>
> Keep in mind, though, terminal server technology does not work as well 
> as stand alone PCs when it comes to multimedia. Graphics are rendered 
> somewhat slower on terminals than on a stand alone PC.  Also, since 
> you already have your licenses, you might be better using your 
> existing Windows machines and connect to your K12LTSP server for your 
> terminal needs.  While you can still run multimedia software, for a 
> better multimedia experience you really need fewer clients per server, 
> lots of RAM on the server, and Gigabit ethernet.  This will enable 
> faster rendering and transfer of graphics; but for web browsing and 
> typing reports, etc. terminals work as well as stand alone PCs.  Since 
> we switched to PCs from Macs a few years ago, I know more about the PC 
> than Mac way to connect to Windows Terminals sessions.  However, from 
> my understanding, I think OS X should be able to do this as well.
>
> While currently we are using LTSP 4.2 with Fedora - the original LTSP 
> , we are thinking that this summer we will switch over to the Edubuntu 
> version, since there are more people working on it. 
> http://www.k12ltsp.org/contents.html is a good place to start.  The 
> site has some dated information, but never-the-less gives a flavor for 
> what can be done with LTSP.  It also provides links to other LTSP sites.
>
> Watching the LTSP project develop and go more mainstream from one 
> person's work to having it being included in the latest Edubuntu fork 
> of Linux is what made us finally decide to move away from the 
> licensing approach that Macintosh and Microsoft require.  LTSP is now 
> more robust and in the hands of a larger creative group.  This and the 
> fact that we were able to find web-based software and Linux software 
> to match our current software needs is also another reason why we 
> switched.
>
> Now, some software specific comments.  If I wanted to run Inspiration 
> on all terminals, then I would also need a license for each terminal.  
> However, instead of Inspiration, we use VYM - View Your Mind, an open 
> source free alternative.  Not as fancy as Inspiration, but is gets the 
> job done and all with no licensing fees whatsoever and on as many 
> terminals as we want.  We use TuxPaint instead of KidPix, OpenOffice 
> for all our Document writing, SpreadSheet work, and Presentation 
> creation, Scribus instead of Publisher, and The GIMP instead of 
> PhotoShop, to name a few alternatives to licensed software. 
>
> Here's how it's been working so far this school year - If students 
> wish to take files home to work on them using MS applications, then 
> they simply save the file to their flash drive in a .doc/.ppt/etc. 
> format, work on it at home and bring it back to school the next day, 
> open it up in OpenOffice and continue working on it.  Some still use 
> GoogleDocs as well.  Our goal is to not be locked into one way of 
> doing things.  In 7th and 8th grade we also are using Moodle for 
> online collaboration, journal writing, and quizzes in both history and 
> science classes.  These are just some of the ways we have moved past 
> the issue of commercial licensing fees.
>
> Michael Plocher
> Director of Technology
> St. Paul Lutheran School
> New Ulm, MN
>
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     To: welstech at messenger.wels.net
>     From: gpotratz at emanuelnl.org
>     Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 23:02:40 -0500
>     Subject: WELS: [Welstech] thin client thoughts
>
>     If you have a lab of 20 computers that you net boot a system into
>     from an image on the server, you still need a license for the
>     operating system and all the applications you have on that image
>     for each of those 20 machines. Would that not be the same scenario
>     as the thin client solution being discussed here?   
>
>     I'd be very interested in knowing if that is not true. Software
>     licensing is a large part of a technology budget, and being honest
>     about licensing is obviously something we
>     deem important in our schools. Mike, are you using google docs and
>     the like for your apps? Don't you have any other software that you
>     need to install and would then need a network copy of said
>     software? What happens when you want Inspiration on all computers?
>     You would need a license for each machine, right?
>
>     Is there anyone else using this approach at this time that could
>     share some insight on licensing when using the thin client scenario?
>
>     Thanks.
>     Gail Potratz
>
>
>
>     Gail Potratz
>     Technology Coordinator/Teacher
>     Emanuel Lutheran Growth and Learning Center
>     200 E. Quincy St.
>     New London, WI 54961
>     920-982-5444
>     Fax:920-982-0954
>
>     " I can do all things through Him who gives me strength."
>      Philippians 4:12
>
>
>
>
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