about UES in Seville presentations

2007-06-16 Thread Agustin Benito
Hi all,

where are the slides of the presentations of last UES that took place in 
Seville? I would like to tell people from the Canary Island to take a look at 
them, specially the mEDUXa ones

Thanks

-- 
Agustín Benito Bethencourt
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.grupocpd.com
www.agustin.ejerciciosresueltos.com

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Re: Your feedback is much appreciated

2007-06-16 Thread Gavin McCullagh
Hi,

On Fri, 15 Jun 2007, Mon Sagullo wrote:

 I intend to use Edubuntu in our new computer lab.  Through this list, I
 found my way to www.eway.com 's site. 

Do you mean

http://www.ewayco.com/

 assuming these are “decent” specs for a thin client that could last for
 at least 3 years, before it gets too slow for newer  release of
 Edubuntu down the road.

Thin clients shouldn't really age like that.  Your server may need
upgrading in time but that's relatively affordable.  The thin clients are
already doing almost all they are going to need to do -- in fact, LTSP5 is
hopefully going to be optimised in the next while to speed it up a little.

Note I am talking now about a thin client not a thick diskless client.
If you want those, that's different.

 My primary objetives, hardware-wise, is to have thin clients that are 
 
 1. Low power consumption
 2. “Quick enough to run Edubuntu and most of its included programs
 3. Boot from LAN
 4. Sturdy and easy to maintain

A few things occur to me:

1. Teeny thin clients are small and could be easy to steal.  You may need
   to bolt them down which might cost something.  Big ugly ones might be
   better if you think this might be a problem.
2. You can quite script your thin clients to all power off at a certain
   time every day if nobody is logged in.  We could try to think up a
   system to power down thin clients if nobody logs in for, say, one hour.
3. Thin clients must use much more power when booting than idle and on, so
   [2] would be a delicate balance.
4. Boot from lan is a given.
5. Thin clients take very little maintenance time in general, though there
   is a little expertise involved.

 for lower cost in operating expense, to use 15-inch Flat LCD monitors.

Compared to CRTs, I'd be inclined to agree.

 My proposed server is an HP Proliant ML 110 G4 (Single Dual-Core Xeon
 Processor 1.86, with 2Gig of RAM) to handle 40 planned thin client per
 server. A couple of Linksys 24-port router to handle the traffic.

I imagine that's a 64-bit cpu.  Just the same, I'd seriously consider
running 32-Bit Ubuntu for the time being.  When all is stable and things
like the flash plugin work on 64-bit you can move up.

For 40 users, you probably need more RAM.  I would try to get up to 4GB per
server.  I'd try to be flexible and see how you go between 30 and 40 users.
It all depends what applications they're all using. 

 2. Aside from being good enough (assuming these specs are), any idea if
 this set-up could last for at least the next three years, before a
 distro of Edubuntu starts requiring more computing horsepower?

The thin clients definitely should be powerful enough.  You should test one
before you order a large number though.

 3. Also, is it possible to boot from WAN, using Edubuntu?

You mean wireless or a WAN?  Not easily over wireless though it is
possible.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EdubuntuFAQ#head-89dcf777d5d9c472dd5aa9a15bb17de90c6f0860

As regards the thin client specs, they all look fine.  One question is
whether, if you're buying so many thin clients, you should be thinking in
terms of buying thin clients capable of running as thick clients which
have no disks but run their own applications.  The main advantage of this
is it should create less network load and less load on the server.  Serious
multimedia applications will work better that way too as video will be
played and displayed locally instead of sent across the network.  Although
this running mode is not available easily on edubuntu yet, it's in
development.  

That route does involve upgrading thick clients more often as they need to
be capable of running applications themselves.  You can have a mixed
environment, most thin and a few thick clients.

Gavin


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Re: Your feedback is much appreciated

2007-06-16 Thread ramonsagullo
Hello, Gavin.

- Original Message 
From: Gavin McCullagh [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: edubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com

Hi,

On Fri, 15 Jun 2007, Mon Sagullo wrote:

 I intend to use Edubuntu in our new computer lab.  Through this list, I
 found my way to www.eway.com 's site. 

Do you mean http://www.ewayco.com/

Thank you for the correction. And I hope I did not misled anyone browsing for 
thin clients. :-)

Note I am talking now about a thin client not a thick diskless client.
If you want those, that's different.

I'd appreciate if you could fill me in with the difference between a thick 
diskless client  and a thin client.

A few things occur to me:

1. Teeny thin clients are small and could be easy to steal.  You may need
 to bolt them down which might cost something.  Big ugly ones might be
  better if you think this might be a problem.

Yes. It's portability had me thinking of doing the same - bolting these on 
the desk, or some sort of a locking mechanism.  I am still crunching the 
numbers if the money saved from having smaller desks for the lab and with the 
less electrical consumption, can offset the modifications necessary to 
accommodate these tiny boxes in our soon-to-be built computer lab.

Aside from money saved from electricity, I really would like to make our new 
computer lab as environment-friendly as possible. 

2. You can quite script your thin clients to all power off at a certain
  time every day if nobody is logged in.  We could try to think up a
  system to power down thin clients if nobody logs in for, say, one hour.

7:20am-8:00pm is the normal class schedule (high school kids most of the day, 
and college kids from 4:00pm), 80-minute lunch break.

5. Thin clients take very little maintenance time in general, though there
   is a little expertise involved.

And I trust I am in the right user group in seeking the expert guidance. :-)

 for lower cost in operating expense, to use 15-inch Flat LCD monitors.
Compared to CRTs, I'd be inclined to agree.

The Board of Trustees got to appreciate the savings on power consumption after 
I gave then a chart of how much the school will save, using a 60-unit computers 
for comparison - CRT vs LCD.

 My proposed server is an HP Proliant ML 110 G4 (Single Dual-Core Xeon
 Processor 1.86, with 2Gig of RAM) to handle 40 planned thin client per
 server. A couple of Linksys 24-port router to handle the traffic.

 I imagine that's a 64-bit cpu.  Just the same, I'd seriously consider
 running 32-Bit Ubuntu for the time being.  When all is stable and things
 like the flash plugin work on 64-bit you can move up.

My first option was to plug together the components for a server, but all I'll 
get this way is warranty on parts, no service support. The HP option was more 
for saving me the headache :-) Now, am inclined to do the former. Thanks for 
the wait till it's more stable advise.

For 40 users, you probably need more RAM.  I would try to get up to 4GB per
server.  I'd try to be flexible and see how you go between 30 and 40 users.
It all depends what applications they're all using.

One of the suggested specs I found in my browsing stated that 64MB per client 
was the least doable.   I am targeting a 30 clients per server. And like Tod, 
your suggestion for more RAM, I am now going for as much RAM as the school 
budget will allow me to.

Our current curriculum has no programming involved.  More on imparting 
proficiency in using a word processor, a spreadsheet and how to efficiently 
browse the web. 99% of our students do not own a personal computers. Though the 
town I live in has a good number of internet kiosks.

 3. Also, is it possible to boot from WAN, using Edubuntu?
You mean wireless or a WAN?  Not easily over wireless though it is
possible.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EdubuntuFAQ#head-89dcf777d5d9c472dd5aa9a15bb17de90c6f0860

Wireless. :-)  Thanks for the link.

As regards the thin client specs, they all look fine.  One question is
whether, if you're buying so many thin clients, you should be thinking in
terms of buying thin clients capable of running as thick clients which
have no disks but run their own applications.  The main advantage of this
is it should create less network load and less load on the server.  Serious
multimedia applications will work better that way too as video will be
played and displayed locally instead of sent across the network.  Although
this running mode is not available easily on edubuntu yet, it's in
development.  

For the next two years, the school is targeting at least 60 to 100 units. I 
could use more tutoring on the salient differences between a diskless thick 
client and diskless thin client.

I forgot to mention that part of the school's planned community service once 
the new lab is up and running, is to provide the parents weekend access, 
preferably with a web cam, so they can get in touch with their OFW (Overseas 
Filipino Workers) spouses, siblings, et. al.

I am also coordinating with our 

Re: Your feedback is much appreciated

2007-06-16 Thread Todd O'Bryan
On Sat, 2007-06-16 at 16:38 -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 I could use more tutoring on the salient differences between a
 diskless thick client and diskless thin client.

A thin client is basically a video device that allows you to see what is
running on a server. With thin clients, all of the processing occurs on
the server, the video is sent over the network and simply displayed by
the client. Above a certain point, extra power in a thin client is just
wasted. The nice thing about thin clients is that you can upgrade a
whole lab just by upgrading the server. Also thin clients tend to have
effective lifetimes of several years because they have few, if any,
moving parts and don't need more processing power as applications become
more intensive.

A diskless thick client is a computer that downloads its operating
system and applications from a central server, but runs the applications
itself. The major advantage is that, because the applications are run
locally, not on the server, one server can accommodate many more
clients. Also, video doesn't need to be sent down to each client, so the
network demands are considerably smaller than with thin clients. The
major disadvantage is that the client must be powerful enough to run the
applications--considerably more powerful than a typical thin client.
Thick clients also tend to have shorter life expectancies than thin
clients, because they must be upgraded to keep up with the increasing
demands of more complicated software. On the other hand, having a really
powerful server with thick clients isn't as important as long as it has
relatively quick disk access.

HTH,
Todd


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