WELS: [Welstech] More thin client thoughts

[Michael Plocher]

Doug,

Thanks for the clarification from my post.  You are correct.  Technically there is a license but no licensing fee associated with it.  In any case, use and even redistribution is free under the GPL license.

The GPL license aspect of the LTSP terminal server packages - free and based on Open Source software - is yet another reason that drew us to Linux.  

While we did buy $120 terminals for our lab here, the K12LTSP package lets you use old PCs, no matter what RAM, CPU, etc., and run them at the speed of the Terminal server.  Very slick for those not wanting to buy new machines and instead want to make their own fast server and then use their outdated PCs, remove the hard drive if you want, and install a NIC with a bootrom chip programmed with an Etherboot bootrom driver that, once the PC is turned on, logs in as a thin client.  I bought five such NICs for about $35 each from www.disklessworkstations.com to play around with turning some of our older PCs (Pentium 3, etc) into thin clients before deciding on the thin clients instead.


Mike

Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:29:45 -0400
From: fosterd at airshow.net
To: techtrainer at wels.net
CC: welstech at messenger.wels.net
Subject: Re: WELS: [Welstech] thin client thoughts



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.  
Small technical issue: my understanding is that Fedora, other Linux distros, OpenOffice and other similar software is licensed --  are under the GPL (General Public License).    But even though a license is required (the GPL), the software is available without a fee.  And it can be copied and redistributed without a fee.

For more on the GPL, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License, or http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.

I'm glad to see that GPL software is being used in our schools. 
-- Doug

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