I am trying the same tactic on my SMT which is partly helped by our lack of technical expertise in the network department. We have a semi-competent "trainer" and the network manager is an ex-A level IT student (got a B last year). All of the A level IT students maintain the network and they do a fairly good job but it is not really enough. I digress. Over the summer I got my hands dirty with Squid and we now have our Internet caching which would have been a costly venture with any MS solution I have seen. I have also had a mare trying to get consistent printing in my teaching room due to "my" machine having the printer attached locally. I'm sure it was the set up but when other staff or students would log on it would set the printer off-line (Win98) for the other users. I now have SuSE running it and it sings all day long. This could be due to other staff being frightened of the "stange" desktop. I am now pushing for a Linux/Star Office solution in the DT department because of some of the excellent design software included. The computers are going to be on a sort of independent network but that is okay for now (and mainly due to the fact that my knowledge of Samba is okay but I have yet to get Linux machines to go the other way--more reading needed?). BTW Roger's excellent article in September's LinuxUser was quite useful in turning the head towards a more sustained Linux deployment. We lost technology status this year and expenses are mounting. Also, on the issue of licensing, this month's PC Plus mentions that buying computers from places like Tiny et al and replacing the OS with a ghosted version invalidates the license. If that is the case I suspect that my school, and many others, are doing some paddling in an unpleasant creek? Paul

Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 19:46:10 +0100 To: Christopher Dawkins Cc: Schools List From: `paul Reply-To: smartart@cableinet.co.uk Subject: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Advice please

In message , Christopher Dawkins writes

SNIP

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Citrix is very expensive, but configuring VMware for multiple concurrent access is a complex job.

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Can I do the job with only £7K: new server, CAT5 cabling, (thin client) licences, probably more memory for each machine, new NICs and so on.

Easily, I'd say, but don't say so, keep the surplus, be useful for black-market petrol. Our last batch of ISA NIC's was four pounds each. Spend money on Netgear 10/100 switches, Intel EtherExpress 10/100 cards in the server, maybe a RAID array, though that'll chew up your 7K.

Many thanks for the words of advice and for giving me another route to consider, Chris. It's much appreciated, believe me. It's come as a bit of shock to be actually be making a "real" decision, IYSWIM, instead of just being occasionally asked an opinion but not having to make the choice. A big shock. Think I'm starting to grow up here a bit :-)

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But tell me, since when have "licences" cost money?

I would love to go Linux only for that room (and then the whole place) and I appreciate that as the new boy I've more chance of actually getting it done too. The problem will be colleagues. Not the ones who need the NOF training but the more knowledgeable users who are dedicated Access/Excel users.

I think the senior DH & H would love to be able to save all that cash we have to spend on licences for MS products. And I've noticed that SuSE 7.o has more educational style packages too.

Hmmn well, I won't know until I ask, will I? And the head's ambition is to make our school (new Technology College) the best for IT in the LEA so I was hoping of selling it as a way of leading the way for others, IYSWIM. -- `paul

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