[K12OSN] A New direction for LTSP: Diskless Remote Boot

[R. Scott Belford]

On Tue, Sep 9, 2008 at 6:42 PM, Warren Togami <wtogami at redhat.com> wrote:

> Robert Arkiletian wrote:
>
>> Hello list,
>>
>> I know local app support is in the works BUT
>>
>> I'm wondering if anyone else is thinking it would be a good idea to
>> have an option (or even a distro) which runs EVERYTHING on the client.
>> Much like DRBL http://drbl.sourceforge.net/. The reason for my
>> suggestion is that I feel the days of Terminal Servers are numbered.
>> With the advent of Intel Atom like cpus, it now becomes possible to
>> retain the energy efficiency of previous generation thin clients AND
>> have enough cpu muscle to run a full desktop. As time goes on these
>> cpus are only going to get faster. They are already fast enough and
>> very affordable.
>
>
>
> Meanwhile could someone analyze how the tools/pieces of DRBL works and
> report back here?


I would second Robert's observation that DRBL is something to model. You may
recall that I discussed this with you earlier this year, Warren, while you
were visiting UH.(1)  I suggested then that DRBL handled the Flash issues,
solved the need for central authentication, and provided goodies like
Clonezilla to boot, literally.  From a development roadmap, I don't know how
to go about combining it with Fedora.  I do know that it seems to solve a
lot of problems.  It uses a lot more NFS mounts, and you can boot many
distro flavors.

When one controls the Etherboot Menu by Mac address, as DRBL permits, the
ability to centrally manage a complete fat, thin, thick, and imaging network
is nearly limitless.

--scott

(1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7OskEcBM40
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