[K12OSN] K12LTSP Presentation and Contact List

Fri Sep 10 21:48:57 UTC 2004

Hi all,

First this is NOT a commercial pitch !!

OK now to serious stuff, I have set-up a commercial company XTlabs Corp 
( www.xtlabs.org), with the specific purpose of deploying thin-client 
technology in educational and commercial environments.
That said, with regrets, school boards in Montreal recognize the 
advantages of K12LTSP but are reluctant to actually implement it. We 
have run an extremely successful pilot in one of the larger school 
boards and have demonstrated unequivocally that this works!
The bureaucrats argue that they will have to introduce yet another OS 
into the boards ( however they are using MAC OSX !!!! and Novell) and 
they will have to train techs to support this new technology. However if 
they train the techs, they (techs) will have better marketability & 
therefore will leave for better jobs. So as to placate the tech fears 
that their jobs will disappear the boards have elected to spend 3 to 4 
times more on M$ systems that they cannot currently support with their 
existing resources- perfectly logical !!

Small & medium businesses are somewhat more open but there is a major 
education process needed to convince them that this is LEGAL ! "What no 
license fees ! How can this be legitimate?"

If my two cents worth is of any value, there still is a lot of work to 
do for this to be accepted. Some companies remember previous sales 
pitches on thin-client technology that did not materialize nor work. I 
would suggest a centralized repository of both companies promoting 
thin-client solutions and those using them.

XTlabs would gladly donate the web space for such an undertaking.

Rally to the OpenSource cause!!!

regards
norbert

networkr0 at cfl.rr.com wrote:

> I appreciate the commercial nature of the post.  After all, once 
> businesses see the value in LTSP, the Linux community can benefit 
> significantly in the long run.  I have been trialing several K12LTSP 
> distro's for over a year now and am beginning to see a compelling 
> argument to deploy K12LTSP and thin clients in a business 
> environment.  Google city of "Largo LTSP", which should give you a 
> success story if you haven't already read it.
>
> steve at hargadon.com wrote:
>
>>My company sells refurbished Dell Optiplex computers, which work well with
>>LTSP, and we have large quantities of identical machines.  We're still
>>working on a price point for selling them with a bootable nic as LTSP
>>workstations--any feedback?
>>
>>I've also thought about creating pre-installed LTSP packages for small
>>organizations--where we install LTSP on a server, and send it preconfigured
>>with user logons, workstations, a switch, and cabling so someone would plug
>>it in and be going right away.  We have all the hardware to do it, it would
>>just be a matter of marketing.  Is there anyone else to whom this would be
>>appealing?
>>
>>Hope the commercial direction of this post is OK.
>>
>>Steve
>>
>>Original Message:
>>-----------------
>>From: Stephen J Smoogen smoogen at lanl.gov
>>Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:47:32 -0600
>>To: steve at hargadon.com, k12osn at redhat.com
>>Subject: Re: [K12OSN] K12LTSP Presentation and Contact List
>>
>>
>>steve at hargadon.com wrote:
>>  
>>
>>>Next week I am giving a presentation on K12LTSP to the Non-Commercial
>>>Refurbishers Summit in Chicago. 
>>>(http://pcsforschools.org/ncrs/standards.html)  What started originally as
>>>a 15 minute slot has now been expanded to 90 minutes, and they have asked
>>>me to set up a working lab as well.  Attending will be non-profit computer
>>>refurbishers from all over the country (and some international as well).
>>>
>>>As a part of my presentation, I'd like to present a list of schools and
>>>businesses who are running LTSP--both to show some of the scope of
>>>implementation, and also to serve as a resource.  If you would be
>>>comfortable being listed, would you please send me a note with your
>>>    
>>>
>>contact
>>  
>>
>>>information?
>>>
>>>Last month I helped a charter school in Hawaii install K12LTSP, and I am
>>>working with the Candian government to set up 2,000 LTSP labs in Kenya,
>>>Africa (which should be about 40,000 workstations).  For the last 16 years
>>>my company has refurbished computer equipment, and schools and school
>>>districts have been some of our most consistent customers.  I have three
>>>demonstrations of K12LTSP scheduled this month, and I am interested in
>>>providing K12LTSP installation and consulting as a part of our services. 
>>>    
>>>
>>I
>>  
>>
>>>would also welcome any help, advice, or contact related to this as well.  
>>>
>>>I really appreciate all who have worked to create such a great use for
>>>    
>>>
>>used
>>  
>>
>>>computers, and I have found this list to be an enormously helpful
>>>    
>>>
>>resource.
>>  
>>
>>
>>I think this list would be useful in other ways. I have a bunch of 
>>schools in this state that would really benefit from this, but they need 
>>to know that it is being used elsewhere and have contacts to talk to 
>>before believing a wild eyed scientist.
>>
>>I would also like to get a good list of refurbishers.. I have a long 
>>list of non-profits with small pockets and they would like to get a good 
>>list of people to buy from.
>>
>>
>>
>>  
>>
>
>-- 
>Brian Chase         Phone:  386-775-5366
>2345 Hillside Ave.      Fax:    309-276-2048
>Orange City, FL  32763      Email:  networkr0 at cfl.rr.com
>
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