Linux - Fedora Core - K12LTSP 4.0

[crouse]

Linux - Fedora Core - K12LTSP 4.0
K12LTSP 4.0 Released
http://newsvac.newsforge.com/article.../12/17/2245202

Paul Nelson pnelson@riverdale.k12.or.us
http://www.k12ltsp.org/contents.html
(503)892-0722

It works. It's free. Duh...

K12LTSP 4.0 (K12 Linux Terminal Server Project) released on December 17.

Portland, Oregon December 17, 2003 - K12LTSP is FREE Linux desktop server software with a successful record of saving millions of dollars for schools, public agencies and businesses. Developed in 2001 by Oregon educators as a FREE alternative for schools using the Microsoft Windows(tm) operating system, K12LTSP is now used widely around the world. Version 4.0 represents a significant step forward in speed, ease of use and features. More than 50,000 schools, government agencies and businesses downloaded K12LTSP last year. Version 4 will be even more popular.
K12LTSP is based on Fedora Core 1 Linux (http://fedora.redhat.com/) and the Linux Terminal Server Project (http://ltsp.org) packages. Fedora is a Red-Hat-sponsored (http://redhat.com) and community-supported open source project. Open source licensing produces better software because the code is published freely and users are encouraged to submit improvements.
K12TLSP installs terminal software on a server that powers diskless workstations (thin-clients). Applications run on the server with only the display, keyboard and mouse running on the workstations. This allows the continued use of older computers while avoiding costly upgrades. New K12LTSP terminals cost less than $200 each. While the cost of operation is lower, users enjoy a faster and more reliable software environment. K12LTSP is also immune from the most common viruses that can cripple organizations with hundreds of networked workstations.
A typical 100 desktop installation of a Windows(tm) based computer network could cost more than $100,000 while the same network running K12LTSP would cost less than than $50,000. Reusing legacy hardware can reduce that cost to less than $10,000. K12LTSP is FREE software. There are no licenses to count or pay for. Users are encouraged to make copies and give it away.
K12LTSP provides a wide selection of productivity applications. Web browsers, e-mail, word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and graphics applications are included and are free. The point and click interface is easy to use and requires little or no retraining.

Best line of that whole article (there is more...follow the link ) was:

It works. It's free. Duh...

Just how much better could it be said ???

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Fedora's Synaptic makes installing programs an absolute breeze No more complaining about dependicies etc... it worked so slick it scared the crap out of me

Yeah... one click install from the root screen for Java, Adobe Acrobat, Flash !!! Woot... talk about easy !!!!

On the intial install I had a usb keyboard... didn't think it was going to work as the keyboard was dead at the intial bootup...... then after about 30 seconds it starts installing by itself !!!!! This eliminated my usb mouse and keyboard problem right away, because as soon as a menu popped up, they were working and I was able to configure to my hearts content.

Here is how you enable .mp3 support in fedora

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XMMS

Grab this file: http://www.osnews.com/files/xmms-mp3-fc1.tar.gz
Run this command: tar -zxvf xmms-mp3-fc1.tar.gz
Copy the two lib files it extracts (as root) to /usr/lib/xmms/Input
Restart xmms

Should work perfectley... it did for me
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I still haven't got to use the LST part yet......as I only have one ethernet card installed at the moment, but I will. That will be the coolest part. If you haven't ever had the pleasure of using a Linux Terminal Server, you have no idea what you missing It turns older hardware into fast usable machines again.... very very cool.

Schools that don't at least look into this are REALLY missing out.

All in all I would give this a 9/10 overall, for easy of use and the way everything meshes just right. Bluecurve seems much better and you still have the option of running KDE or Gnome and some other window managers if you prefer them over Bluecurve. I downloaded all 4 iso's.... and everything was up to date except for one package.

Check it out
Screenshot Here: http://www.techimo.com/photo/showphoto.php?photo=4941

[CMonster]

thanks for the heads-up; perhaps Fedora may be able to breathe new life into RH's offerings -particularly for home users....

[crouse]

UPDATE
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Here are some images of my current setup.

I have 1 terminal server machine, and 3 clients. 4 when i stick that old 75 mhz machine in my garage But anyway, here are a couple pics.

This is what a login screen on my computer looks like.

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This is what my desk looks like close up

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This is what my desktop looks like. A few computers


The computer on the left is actually the usalug.org server. The next 4 comps are using K12LTSP 4.0 (one of them is the server for ltsp... but for all intensive purposes, you couldn't tell which one just by using them).

Left to right
1 IBM Intellistation E pro 450 mhz (running usalug.org)

All below are running K12LTSP 4.0

1 IBM Aptive 333mhz (k12ltsp client) (will boot into another os also)
1 IBM 300pl 200mhz (k12ltsp client) (will boot into another os also)
1 Built myself Duron 1.3 ghz machine (k12ltsp 4.0 server) (also have 5 other swappable drives)
1 IBM 300pl 400 mhz (k12ltsp client) (will boot into another os also)

not used...but tested for my garage an IBM 75 mhz.

All my older machines get a new life Not to mention I can now log in and have my normal desktop on any one of my machines. 8) 8) 8)

I hooked up a 75 mhz IBM with 48 mb's of ram and an older 2 mb video card and a 3com509tpo ethernet card........... and booted K12LTSP on it........... and it was FAST !!!

It's REALLY REALLY strange to see an old antique perform like a new machine, but that's what it did, I even created some graphics using the gimp as a gauge on how fast it seemed to run, and it SEEMS to run almost as fast as the server machine......... the only thing slowing it down i think is my older hub. I may invest in a faster hub and 100mb pci cards and just get a new boot disk for the machine, as i think it would perform even better.

You just wouldn't believe me if you saw it running that it is only a 75mhz machine ..... something most people THROW AWAY

Unfreakin believable .......... it really is. EVERY SCHOOL IN THE USA should be using this........... as it would eliminate the need for upgrading every few years... I mean the 75 mhz machine is over 9 years old !!!!! I even pulled the hard disk completely out and removed the cdrom drive that was in it.

If you have any older computers that you were thinking of just throwing away, give this a whirl, it's pretty darn cool

[samwichse]

Hey Crouse, how'd you get those to boot. I tried dabbling with K12LTSP once, but best I could figure you have to have a bootrom for your specific network card? (in this case, the network cards were old ISA 10mbps/ weird coax cable cards) Or do the computers have to have the "boot from network" option in the bios?

Sam

[Jeordiewhite]

(in this case, the network cards were old ISA 10mbps/ weird coax cable cards)

Those are tolken rings samwichse.
Generally yes you do need a rom chip on your network card to boot off of a network.

[thronka]

How do you BOOT off a network card.... I know my BIOS on my integrated ethernet allows it but what about other machines that you have an add-on ethernet cardX?

[CMonster]

What a beautiful bookshelf!

[crouse]

For older machines, just get the EXACT specs of your network card and go here:
http://www.rom-o-matic.net/5.2.2/

Choose your network card from the dropdown list in the first box.
Then choose PXE loadable ROM Image (.zpxe)

That's the only choice you need to make for K12LTSP 4.0

Then follow the directions for creating a boot disk from the downloaded file. It's that simple



Want to use a really small hard drive and boot ltsp from a hard drive instead of network card ?? http://www.peak.org/~mountainman/misc/LTSP-boot.html