[K12OSN] Greetings from LTSP-by-the-Sea!

[David Trask]

Hi all,

I'm reporting live from Day 3 (Sunday) of the weekend dev-hackathon in
Southwest Harbor, Maine  USA.  There are many noted K12LTSP and LTSP folks
are here hackiing away.  Some accomplishments (understand that many of
these items still have a lot of development that needs to be done...so
don't expect them to be released tomorrow...*grin*) ....a considerable
amount of progress has been made in the areas of hardware/automounting/usb
keys (let's put it this way...it works, but now there's more testing to be
done...but essentially you stick in the USB thumbdrive....and click on
it...that simple...same for almost any other device).  We have NX
working....in fact we used my server here at VCS as the guinea pig....much
testing needs to be done, but it works.  Considerable thought was put into
mapping out local apps and progress is being made as to the best way to
implement that and make it simple.  It was determined that we have all the
pieces for observe/demo/remote control solution similar to Apple Remote
Desktop...or various other PC alternatives such as Vision...etc.  It's a
matter of packaging at this point, but it does work and it's quite slick! 
It's amazing what a cobbled together wireless network and a hodge-podge of
laptops...combined with folks from as far away as Portland, OR and
Norway...can accomplish on beer, lobster, and very little sleep!  

Samba/LDAP was discussed at length...various ideas were tossed around, but
one awesome thing we learned is that the folks at SkoleLinux (aka Debian
EDU)....Ragnar Wisloff...the guy from Norway....they have put together a
distro that has Samba/LDAP already running with a slick web interface.  If
I didn't already have one running....I'd simply install this....set it
up....export the home directories and be in business.  You can add users
via a text file as well for bulk import.  I encourage you to visit the
skolelinux site    http://www.skolelinux.org/portal/   in addition to
being a very cool server...it is also an LTSP server distro as
well...depending on you set it up (which profile you choose).  

So!  As you can see things were accomplished and hopefully many of you
(us) will see the fruits of this labor prior to Linux World in February! 
I learned a lot from these guys and was thrilled to be able to be a small
part of it (I was on the NX team).  Hopefully we'll have some pics real
soon!  Many thanks to Chuck Liebow for hosting us....The folks at the
SeaWall Motel....the folks from DisklessWorkstations.com and Lumensoftware
for sponsoring Sat. nights feast....and everyone who attended for all you
do.....and most of all to everyone out there who is a part of this awesome
Open Source community!

David N. Trask
Technology Teacher/Coordinator
Vassalboro Community School
dtrask at vcs.u52.k12.me.us
(207)923-3100