[K12OSN] More detailed instructions & documentation needed for K12LTSP implementation

[Roj Jer]

Words from yet another newbie... please be patient.

Career Microsoft folks (like myself) wanting to move from the Microsoft
community to the Open Source Linux community face enormous challenges when
first arriving in the neighborhood. We don't understand the "lingo" or even
where to go to find anything that looks vaguely familiar.

I have been recruited to help design and implement a computer lab for a
neighborhood private school (K-12). The largest factor was $$COST$$. They
have a big need and a small budget. They've received a donation of 30+
100Mhz Pentium PC's with 64Mb Ram, 1GB Hard Disk, and 10/100 Nics. The cost
of implementing new "Dell's" was around $15,000... (way over budget). What
is the budget? The least expensive method possible. So, my research has
begun. I thought about Citrix on a Microsoft Server, but there were all of
the licensing $$COST$$. So, I considered researching Open Source solutions.

I got super pumped when I Googled "Open Source Linux Terminal Server" and
the 2nd item was titled, "K12 Linux in Schools Project". I read all of the
"Testimonials" and "Case Studies" and determined that this was a perfect
match.

I downloaded the K12LTSP 4.4.1 - Install CD-ROMs and commenced to installing
it on a donated 1.4GHz AMD PC with 4GB of RAM. I emulated an Ethernet
bootrom on the client PC's by booting from a floppy disk created from the
http://www.Rom-O-Matic.net <http://www.rom-o-matic.net/> site. Within an
hour after having the K12LTSP server online, I had 3 of the 100MHz Pentium
PC's connected and working.

Super! Great! But that seems to be where the Magic ends.

And now the point!

In the Windows world it is easy to configure the "All Users" Start Menu
(C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu), or customize a Start Menu
for a particular user. You can customize the Default User environment (local
machine) as a template for subsequent new users.
When incorporating Citrix into the Mix, you can install software on the
Citrix server and "Publish" the application for a particular user or group.

My questions:

1) How / Where do you configure K12LTSP to segregate "Teachers" from
"Students", "3rd Grade" from "12th Grade", so that each "group" gets the
appropriate desktop and program menu respective to their roles in the
school? A 3rd Grader does not need the same applications, shortcuts, etc as
a 12th Grader.

2) What are other schools using for URL filtering and Surf Control to keep
students from "stumbling" across Porn Sites or any other topic deemed
"inappropriate"?

Thanks for your patience.

RJ
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