On Tue, 20 Apr 2004, Lanman wrote: > I've been using LTSP for a while now, and lurking on the list ( for the > most part ), for about 6 months. So far the only confusing thing that > I've heard mentioned time and again is the term "Local Apps". It > probably has to do with genetics or something silly, but could someone > please clarify this term for me? > > My understanding is that all applications are run from the server, and > not locally from the terminals. In that respect, is there actually such > a things as local apps at all? Could someone give me a clear idea on this?
Local apps is the ability to run a program locally on the client, utilizing the cpu and memory of the client. Unfortunately, it's not easy to do. The client computer needs some concept of users, and by default it doesn't have a clue. We can give it a clue by using NIS. Then it will get it's user information from the NIS server. We're working on the ability to use LDAP instead of NIS. Another tricky part of local apps is getting the applications launched. The user is logged into the server, getting a program to run on the client is done by using ssh. This requires some setup of public/private keys in SSH, so that it doesn't ask for a password each time you try to launch the program. Also, for a program to run locally, the program and all of it's required libraries must be in the /opt/ltsp/i386 tree, where the client can get them. The LBE (LTSP Build Environment) is what we use to build local apps. We're working on making that easier, and also working on some documentation, so others can jump in and build their own local apps. Keep in mind, that some applications are good candidates for running locally. Mozilla comes to mind there. It's a bit of a resource hog, and doesn't share well with others. So, running it on the client can allow you to deploy many more clients without pushing the server too hard. OpenOffice, on the other hand, doesn't make a great local app. OOo does an excellent job of sharing it's code between users, and you will see better performance if several users share the code on the server, rather than each user invoking it separately on the client. Another thing to keep in mind. Launching an app on the client will take longer than lauching it on the server. This is because the program and it's libraries would have to be loaded via NFS. Hope that helps, Jim McQuillan [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: IBM Linux Tutorials Free Linux tutorial presented by Daniel Robbins, President and CEO of GenToo technologies. Learn everything from fundamentals to system administration.http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=1470&alloc_id=3638&op=click _____________________________________________________________________ Ltsp-discuss mailing list. To un-subscribe, or change prefs, goto: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ltsp-discuss For additional LTSP help, try #ltsp channel on irc.freenode.net
