Re: K12 KLUG possibility: Demolinux possibilities

[Bruce Smith <bruce@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> > I got a copy of Demolinux 1.0 from Bruce this week.  I think it has
> > potiential to bring Linux to the desktop in a hurry!  It allows the
> > user to boot into a KDE gui without an installation to the hard
> > drive.  It is extremely easy and allows access to the floppy disk,
> > many KDE games (14) and applications.  I opened 36 programs before it
> > froze and a Ctrl-Alt-Backspace killed the programs and brought back a
> > login screen. Demolinux could be used in colleges and high schools to
> > provide access to Linux without the need to dedicate substantial
> > resources.  If Koffice is available on later versions of Demolinux, it
> > could be a valuable resource for students.  Since it is free, students
> > could use it at school and home.  Once students use it in school it
> > will be installed at their homes and later in their offices.

Demolinux 2.0 is out now, and includes StarOffice 5.1.

Even though the one time I tried it, Star came up in German.  :-)
(I may have selected the wrong language on boot, I'm not sure)

> As the relatively inactive person responsible for the K12 page for KLUG,
> I was delighted to find just now this review by Patrick McGovern of
> DemoLlNUX which had interested me for some time as a way to get public
> school teachers exposed to LINUX with no threat to their normal
> operating procedures.   I had given up on the idea at my working model,
> my wife's (principal) middle school (Olivet MI)  where I volunteer
> because the person then running Information Servies at the Olivet
> Community Schools was somewhat anal about security and would not allow
> teachers access to their own hard drives, requiring they all use group
> and individual  partitions on the servers' hard drives.  That person has
> now resigned and the temporary person may be more open about giving
> teachers some control on their own machines.
> 
> Interestingly enough, the temporary replacement person has almost no
> LINUX experience and the system he inherited operates all its servers
> with LINUX (RH yet)!  So I shall play a larger role in the new regime
> and may be able to persuade the school  system to look closely at the
> advantages of converting most of the operating systems to LINUX.  It
> would be great to allow teachers to choose from their 'own' classroom
> computers which operating system to use.   I had thought WINE would be
> an ideal way to implemement such a system.  I'd appreciate any
> information on the effectiveness of using WINE to make both MSwindoz and
> LINUX easily accessible on a networked classroom computer.  Maybe
> DemoLINUX would be a better way to go.

Just to be clear, DemoLinux is a great way to _DEMO_ Linux.
Since it's completely contained on CD, it's very static.
If you want to add applications like WINE or anything else
that doesn't come with DemoLinux, you're out of luck.

Also, since DemoLinux runs off CD, and CD drives are slower
than hard drives, DemoLinux runs slower than Linux installed
on a hard drive.

As far as Wine, you would have to see if it runs the applications
you need.  The last time I checked, WINE was far from being
complete and had trouble with the newest software, but ran older
16 bit software much better.

Depending on the situtation, there are other ways to run M$ software.

1)  VMware lets you run a complete Windows OS (NT, 98, or 95)
    in a Linux window on your system.  It's very nice, but 
    requires extra hardware (i.e. a LOT of memory) since you
    are really running 2 OS's at once, and you need resources
    for both.  VMware is commercial software, and I don't know
    the educational price.  Check www.vmware.com.

2)  Citrix also lets you run Windows inside a Linux window, 
    only slightly differently.  Windows is really running on
    a Citrix server elsewhere on your LAN and you are
    connecting to it over your network.  One Citrix server
    can server a number of other clients (15 or more).
    Again, Citrix is not free and I don't know the .edu price.

My personal preference is to avoid all emulation and run 100%
native Linux applications whenever possible.  Remember, in 
addition to the cost of Citrix and/or VMware, you are STILL 
required to purchase the Windows OS, M$ Office, and all the 
other applications you plan on running.  FOR EACH USER.

--------------------------------------------
Bruce Smith                bruce@armintl.com
System Administrator / Network Administrator
Armstrong International, Inc.
Three Rivers, Michigan  49093  USA
http://www.armstrong-intl.com/
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