[K12OSN] Re: Making donations work better

[Jonathan Carter]

Holmes Wilson wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I just had a funny experience: I joined the list specifically to ask 
> if anyone would be interested in working on a Live-CD to facilitate 
> turning donated boxes into thin clients, and then while looking 
> through recent archives to get a feel for the discussion, I stumbled 
> across Steven's post where he proposed the exact same idea.  My angle 
> on this is that last year some friends and I started a small 
> organization in our town (Worcester, MA) where we're using donated 
> computers and free software to set up LTSP labs and give free 
> computers to participants.  I know that schools, not small 
> neighborhood labs, are probably the primary target for K12LTSP 
> development.  But there is a huge potential for these kinds of labs 
> because they can be put together on such a small budget--especially 
> when you throw donated computers into the mix.  And a tool like the 
> one discussed would make setting up--and maintaining--these labs a lot 
> simpler.



Hi Holmes,

Could you please elaborate? Normally you just put in a network card and 
switch on. On live terminal servers, Knoppix has one built in that works 
very nicely. LTSP is also widely used in non-school environments, and 
it's starting to get very popular over here in South Africa. We get lots 
of computers fromthe UK with stickers on that says "good for africa". It 
turns out they are good for LTSP too :)

-Jonathan