Re: Wine and Linux termincal services

["Scott Van Singel" <svansingel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I understand your Rant for the Laptops and the TTI. I can tell you one one level it
has been a huge help to us.
We got 180 Dell Insiron 3800 Laptops with Pent Celeron 600 with 128 Meg of ram,
running Win 98SE, and Office 2k Pro on them for 1200 each. Now, Yes the tax payers
do pay for this but, when we deploy these laptops the IT people are not responsible
for them. They have to contact Dell for Tech support or for problems. Now, teachers
can not call me on a whem and ask stupid questions because they do not want to think
on their own.
Next, the state paid for all the laptops and we can use them on our network. We are
going to buy docking stations for the teachers and let them be on the network. We
are going to upgrade the OS to Win 2000 Pro and have Office 2k Prem on them. Once
this is complete, the teacher will be able to take thier work home with them and run
tha applications there.
This will force teachers to learn some bacis functions of computers and should
lighten our load for the IT techs.

Now, on the other hand. I am peved off at MS for the way they do business. They
charge to much money for schools to function and have IT in the program. But, most
programs for education is written in MS forms. So, if I could run the education
programs on a Linux Termincal Service Thin Client (old Computer) then I can save a
ton of money.
I would love to have more Linux stuff here at the school but, I can not get the
linux stuff to function the way I need. Plus, most linux applications now require
high amounts of Administration to setup and run. We do not have the time or
experiance to handle some of this linux stuff (yet).
Now, if I can get some of the work completed with Linux and it makes sence I will
look at it.
First thing I need is to get these old computers to run the Office 2k and other
programs,that is why I am looking at the Linux Terminal Service stuff.

As far as Win 2k servers goes. Yes it does come with Terminal Service but, you have
only two modes. One is admin, where you can connect to a server via terminal service
and make some changes on it. Makes it nice so you do not have to go to the sever and
make changes. The limitation is, the server will only allow 4 people at once to
connect this way.  Next is the Terminal Services (like Citrix) if you want more than
4 people to run applications. The downd side is, you will have to purchase Lic for
each user to connect to the sever. The lic you get with NT 4 workstaions or other MS
OS are not qualified. You must pay extra to get these services to work
Once again, MS makes a product, you buy it and then pay more to make it do what they
say it can. It is like they resell you the same product back to you.

So, if anyone else would like to help me get this project off the ground I would
really appreciate it.
I need to run MS apps on some old computer and I think the best way is to get  a
Terminal service to run on them.
If anyone has some other suggestions I would like to hear what they are.

Scott
Adam Tauno Williams wrote:

> >Thank you for your imput.
> >As far as MS office, I need to run Office 2k. Thanks to the Teacher
> >Technology initative, I now have 180 laptops with Office 2k on them
> >and you know that some people will not be able to tell the difference
> >between Office 97 and 2k when they save the programs.
>
> <Warning: HIGH RANT FACTOR> I am quite familiar with the TTI, having read the
> end-user agreements, etc...  This is nothing but a very expensive (to tax
> payers) railroading of the school system by the Dell/Microsoft monstrosity.
> First, the hardware/software has not been purchased at any significant discount,
> and they know that the infrastructure at most schools is incompatible with what
> they are providing (it eludes to that fact in a couple of the documents).  What
> better way to sell thousands of copies of your products then to sledge hammer
> the administrators of those networks into buying them.  I find it hard to
> beleive that no-one from the public schools considered this when devising the
> TTI,  but then I had to donate several ethernet cables to one school because
> they couldn't hook up the computers they did have because they couldn't get
> CABLES from administration in less than several months.    There are many GREAT
> people in the school system,  but usually they are made hapless victims of utter
> and gross incompetence and corruption by the "powers that be".</RANT>
>
> >I have already ran into some people that saved some work on their
> >laptops then come to work (work we are running Office 97) and they are
> >having problems opening the files. The next thing I hear from them is
> >"PUT Office 2k on my computer" (love it when they demand stuff
> >from me). Almost all the desktops here are running Windows NT 4.0
> >workstation.
> >There are many computers that are not working well because they are old.
> >If I could somehow put them on a Terminal service ( I do not
> >want to use Citrix, it gets to expensive)
>
> Doesn't Win2000 server come with terminal services by default?  I could be
> wrong.  Last time I tried to figure out Terminal Server licensing I had flash
> backs to translating a very old latin copy of "The Labors of Hercules" into
> english.  If you have M$ desktop clients, you already have a CAL, yes?
>
> >and then run the MS products no them, then that would save me a lot of money
> >and headaches for now.
> >So, if anyone can get a old computer to run Linux from a server then
> >wine on that for the MS applications, I would love to work with you
>
> I would advise you to search the Wine mail archives concerning Office 2000,  and
> see if anyone has had any luck.
>
> >to get this project up and running here at Sturgis Schools.
> >Maybe, if we can get this working it would be a great presentation for
> >KLUG.
>
> It would,  but I suspect they have you by the proverbial you-know-whats.
>
> Systems and Network Administrator
> Morrison Industries
> 1825 Monroe Ave NW.
> Grand Rapids, MI. 49505

--
Scott Van Singel
Technology Director
Sturgis Public Schools
216 Vinewood
Sturgis, MI. 49091
Office: (616) 659-1512
Fax: (616) 651-1571
Email: svansingel@sturgis.k12.mi.us