On Wed, 26 Apr 2000 DrCowsley@aol.com wrote:
Hoping to use Linux instead of NT as a SIMS server, to route packets between Ethernet and Token Ring networks, and to cache Internet traffic locally so that we can run full class Internet without squeezing casual users out of the ISDN bandwidth. Evaluating it as an alternative to scores of expensive
Install squid as a web proxy. That'll maintain a cache of documents resulting in far less traffic over your ISDN line. It can be rather disk intensive, and require rather a lot of space, but the benefits far outweigh the cost of the disk space required.
Windows 95 or Windows 2000 terminals, and Star Office as an alternative to Microsoft Office on scores of terminals - saving thousands of pounds in licence fees! Has anybody been there already?
Although I'd support you wholeheartedly for that decicision you do have to consider what software will be required on those systems. If departments within the school require particular educational software packages then 99.9% of those will only be available for windows machines. You may be able to get around this problem through the use of WINE (a windows emulator), dosemu (a dos emulator), or if you're really pushed a copy of VMWare (which will allow you to run Windows on top of Linux), but then you've obviously negated some of the benefits of installing Linux in the first place (Mainly stability & cost). I can't praise staroffice highly enough. I find it extremely useful when people insist on attaching MS Office files to email. The cross compatibility is great, and you don't have to worry about all those nasty macro viruses. -- ___ _ In a world without fences - who needs Gates? | (_' M1CHW ._|on ._)tockill <jon@ops-wing.demon.co.uk>