On 09-Feb-08, at 9:59 PM, Rishab Aiyer Ghosh wrote:
share the story for those who missed the dinner?
That's tomorrow, and I'll probably be missing it. Here's an outline of
the work we're involved in:
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/bangpypers/2008-February/000329.html
As for the unusual foss story -- we're in the middle of extended
trials of a computer configuration that combines Ubuntu Linux and
Windows XP, the latter in a virtual machine within the former, serving
as the user interface, for use in rural information telecentres across
India, with at least 10,000 planned deployments through 2008.
Windows has to be present because several conditions that we operate
under mandate it, and Linux because it makes sense. The Linux side
monitors activity, controls access and manages configuration.
Performing Windows software updates (the non-Microsoft updates, that
is) remotely over low-bandwidth connections is a serious pain. As
these machines are typically on a network of one computer each, there
are no gains from using parallel network deployment solutions.
We do it now using Debian's excellent package management framework.
The Linux side downloads Windows updates and tracks their status as it
would any other Debian package. They are then foisted onto the Windows
side and installed using WPKG (http://wpkg.org/).
We intend to release most of our glue code as open source. Some of it
already is, though it's not yet in a state where it would be useful to
anyone:
http://code.google.com/p/rbc-tcconfig/
J.
