Prairienet Banner

Planning Stages

Friday, October 3, 2008:  Meeting with Martin for Project Discussion

Linux Terminal Server Project:

  • One higher end computer will run distribuition + other software as the central server; other computers will communicate to this server to run applications locally
  • Potential Issues:
    • Adequate hardware for the server
      • If one CPU is not capable of running the window manager, how should we address this?
    • What should Linux look like for them?  How can we change the look and feel of the window manager (themes, icons, shortcuts, background image) to make it more accessible, user-friendly, and intuitive?
    • Longevity:  We should be looking for a distribution with long term sustainability and creation of updates.  Martin would like to see us use Mint, but that is just one option.

Primary User Groups:

  1. Youth
  2. Possibly expanding services to include senior citizens.

Software Components:

  1. LTS Software
  2. Distribution
  3. Windows Manager
  4. Other applications

Possible Distributions:

  • Edubuntu (newest release is not a full distro:  Ubuntu+Edubuntu package on top)
    • Strict licensing concerns therefore does not support multimedia capabilities immediately
  • Mint
    • We could also use the Edubuntu add-on with this distro.
  • PCOS
    • Martin suggested this as a possibility for it’s multimedia creation capabilities.

***We need to do more research into distributions as well as software/drivers especially for multimedia (i.e. video cameras)

Morningstar Lab details:

  • 6-8 computers
  • Small room
  • Server will be housed in a different room (office)

Suggested Timeline:

  1. Mid-November trip:  Set up LTS, terminal stations at Morningstar.  User testing of multiple options.
    1. See what works and what does not, reevaluate, put together final product.
  2. Early December trip:  Final installation.

Friday, October 10, 2008: Group Meeting

Letter to Pastor Kaitroy:

-Emailed Pastor Kaitroy to introduce the group and open up communication

Computers:

-8 Terminals (may TFTP capabilty)

-We will need to upgrade the server with RAM (goal is three 512 MB sticks)

-Discussion of Account management:  we won’t be able to fully determine how to approach this without knowing if there will be consistent use of storage, who will manage user accounts (is there a tech person at Morningstar?)

-Automate updates

-Creation of user manuals

-RAID array to create redundancy?

-Customization of wallpaper and icons

Distribution of Tasks:

-A. will put the spreadsheet on Google Docs; all of us have access to the Google account (check your email for more info)

Meeting Times:

-Thursday, October 16:  nuke clients; identify server and nuke

-Friday, October 17:  image with different window managers