[K12OSN] Current "state of the art" in K12LTSP?

[Terrell Prude' Jr.]

On Thursday 11 September 2008 22:48, Mark Lindman wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I'm replacing a K12ltsp Centos 5.2 system that was used last year by 6
> students, with a pair of servers intended to support 30-40 sessions total.
> (ibm x345 dual 3.6Ghz 4G ram no drives $285 each).  With a bunch of SCSI
> drives I figure they ought to do it.  I plan to also set up a Fedora
> Directory server for authentication on another computer.
>
> I installed Edubuntu on the same 6 user system, but it I'm stumbling around
> some of the management as it's so different than the older ltsp. I also
> worry when I read of other folks real-world experience with it.  k12ltsp
> Centos 5.2 has been very stable, but I'm tempted to leap to a ltsp 5
> system.  Would you use Centos 5.2, or do you think of Fedora 9 or openSuSE
> 11 or ??? with ltsp 5 is ready for "production"?
>
> One consideration is that it's a small school <200 students, I'm a
> 'volunteer' with a full-time job, and there is nobody on site most of the
> time to deal with anything that hangs/locks up, etc.  so it needs to be
> pretty bullet-proof.  Updates, new software, etc. I can do in my spare
> time.  I have three days to get them built and delivered.
>
> Thoughts?

Sounds to me like you've already answered your own question.

As you've pointed out above, K12LTSP 5EL is tried 'n' true, and it requires 
exceedingly little maintenance.  Given the staffing situation that you 
describe in your last paragraph, I'd go with tried 'n' true.  You don't want 
anybody being able to say, "see, your 'Linux thing' failed, let's go back to 
Windows!  Waaaah!"  Don't laugh; that actually happens.

It all boils down to what you want more.  Do you want the chrome 1980's 
Cadillac that looks sparkly and pretty, but might require lots of 
maintenance?  Or would you prefer that Honda Accord that might not be *quite* 
as chromed, but will get you there and back every time?  Personally, I pick 
the Accord, especially in production, and in this case, the Accord is K12LTSP 
5EL.

And as for that Fedora Directory Server...make it a CentOS Directory Server.  
You don't need to upgrade your production LDAP server's OS every year.  I use 
the following rule:  workstations get Fedora or Ubuntu, servers get 
CentOS/RHEL or Debian.

--TP