Presentation for the ITSC 2008 conference on thin clients, intended for a technical audience. Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution United States License.
Citation preview
1. Thin Clients How To Created and displayed with open source
software + Linux Presented by Brian Jamison Thin clients How To
Content licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United
States License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/
2. Brian Jamison -->
Co-Founder of OpenSourcery
President of POSSE
Portland Open Source Software Entrepreneurs
Using open source software to solve business needs since
1995
clients: Sony, Nissan, Energizer, Disney...
Personally using Linux on the desktop since 2001
3. About OpenSourcery
Founded 2004
PSU, Reed, CCC
Services:
Plan
Install
Configure
Maintain
4. Overview
What is thin?
Why thin?
Savings
Case study
Common pitfalls
Questions
5. What is thin?
Uses a single server for all heavy lifting
Clients boot, run applications, store data on server, not
themselves
6. Why thin?
Savings at every stage
Peace of mind
Ease of maintenance
7. Hardware savings, client
Thin client: $106
17 flat screen LCD: $171
Keyboard, mouse: $20
Total: $297
8. Hardware savings, server
Server requires:
RAM: 512mb + 50mb per client
CPU: 100mhz/32 bit or 75mhz/64 bit
Bandwidth: gigabit NIC
Server for 60 client setup:
2 AMD 64bit dual core Opterons
4gb RAM, 160gb HD, Gigabit ethernet
Total: $1741
cut that approximately in half for 30 clients
9. Licensing costs $0
Server operating system: $0
Client operating system: $0
Applications: $0
Educational programs, Office suite, Google Earth, Firefox,
Video/audio editing, plus 20,000 others.
Updates cost $0
10. Installation savings
Server setup and configuration, about a day
Per client, about 15 minutes
11. Hardware maintenance savings
No moving parts on clients no hard drives, no fans.
Avoid service calls simply replace unit with an inexpensive
spare!
12. OS maintenance savings
Client and server highly resistant to virii,
spyware/malware
Nothing gained hacking client
Server extremely difficult to hack
Can be made to automatically start clean on each login
Updates delivered via the Internet for $0
13. Energy savings
Each thin client draws 20 watts
14. Other advantages
Centralized storage, backups
USB keys for each student for individual storage
allows theming, customization, history to stay with the
student
15. Case study
Charter high school with 160+ students
Edubuntu
Software requirements
Office, Web, Google Earth
Video/sound editing
Fractions/algebra apps
Terminal Server for Cognitive Tutor on w2k3 box
16. Planning
Get a specific list of necessary software from admins and
instructors
this avoids apps sneaking in after planning consider math
tutoring software, video editing, multilingual support...
17. Content Filtering
User login defines content filtering
all access or none
this can be made quite complex if desired
18. Configuration
LTSP on server
Thin clients PXE boot stock Edubuntu Feisty over the
network
Bootsplash needed configuration to make LCD work during
bootup
Password protected bios
On logout we auto wipe the home directory to avoid offensive
leave-behinds
(students use USB keys for storing their own work)
19. More Configuration
Lockdown of browser, office suite, desktop, etc
Trac to store documentation
20. Students cannot
Install new programs
Gain administrator access
Get to the Internet unless approved by Instructor
21. Windows Terminal Server
Must deploy due to decision to use a proprietary windows-based
tutoring program
Ironically this was the way students were able to hack out to
the Internet, install proggies, etc.
22. The Tale of the Office Suite
OpenOffice billed as Microsoft Office replacement
Writer/Word: lacking collab, macro compatibility
Calc/Excel: lacks macro compatibility
Base/Access: not ready yet
Powerpoint: lacks read-write compatibility
Not for macro wizards
Not for extreme spreadsheet programmers
Not 100% perfect reading/writing MS formats
An excellent fit for students.
23. Students Experience
It just worked.
24. Common Pitfall #1
Asking a bunch of Windows folks to deploy mission-critical
Linux server or services
25. Common Pitfall #2
Deploying open source applications before they are fully
baked
Hoary Hedgehog
Jahshaka
26. Common Pitfall #3
Asking black-box gear to play nicely with open source
Windows Terminal Server + Tutoring App = Pain
27. Common Pitfall #5
Failing to demand as much from proprietary software as open
source