Get the Facts
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| pogson Jun 22, 2006 11:01 AM EDT |
I have enjoyed reading Get the Facts. I pick the most outrageous claims and find the facts. Of course, the M$FT-funded stuff is beyond recovery. My latest research into Dufferin-Peel Catholic school board switching to Windows took a bit of digging. According to M$FT, the headline is "We tried a Linux thin client solution but ran into so many reliabilty challenges that we moved to Microsoft Windows and haven't looked back." If you read the article at http://members.microsoft.com/customerevidence/Common/FileOpe...
we read that they were using Citrix and Linux-based thin clients. Changing to Windows-based thin clients magically solved all problems. This is not really a test of Linux at all but was a test of two models of thin client... In another article, http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5171304.html, the IT guy, Steele is quoted as saying: "Despite the touted benefits of the open-source technology, the Linux-based terminals were causing reliability, configuration and performance issues that couldn't be replicated", Steele noted. "It just kind of worked out that the version of Linux that we were provided with…just caused so much havoc that it was an easy decision." But it wasn't an issue of preferring one operating system over the other, Steele noted, rather it was that remaining a Windows shop suited the school boards' needs. While he would look at Linux again, touting the OS's apparent reliability on the network side, he noted that "there doesn't seem to be any long term direction that the providers of Linux are adhering to." That is quite a different story. Most people have no trouble running Linux thin clients. Here they were going from Windows/Citrix to a thin client with a Linux OS built in. Who knows where the problem lay? I can tell you I have not had much trouble installing or maintaining a complete Linux solution, ever. |
| dcparris Jun 22, 2006 12:55 PM EDT |
> I can tell you I have not had much trouble installing or maintaining a complete Linux solution, ever. Just curious - what kind of experience do you have with GNU/Linux "thin client" stuff? |
| jimf Jun 22, 2006 1:19 PM EDT |
> the Linux-based terminals were causing reliability, configuration and performance issues that couldn't be replicated" "couldn't be replicated" This really sounds like FUD... Just as likely then that the problem is something else entirely... Like an admin bias. > remaining a Windows shop suited the school boards' needs Heh... and the admin bias. |
| pogson Mar 15, 2008 5:14 AM EDT |
Sorry for the late reply. I just was browsing for more FUD and came back to it. I am writing to the Canadian Competition Bureau who need complaints before they will rein in M$. I have used thin clients with GNU/Linux for five years in labs, classrooms and a whole school last year. It takes a bit of fiddling to set up sometimes, but LTSP is getting easier with distros like K12LTSP, EdUbuntu, and Skolelinux having installation options for simple networks. Once it is configured, life gets really easy. I can logoff any student or all of them in seconds, kill any process, even use the clients as an array for a super computer... Fun. I maintain a couple of machines and my work is done. No software on the hard drives of clients is great. I will expand my present system with a bunch of servers, one for each building and a couple for my lab to run everything. SSH is my friend. |
| Scott_Ruecker Mar 15, 2008 6:06 AM EDT |
Late reply? Yeah, I would say that 2 years is a little late.. Don is no longer with LXer and Jim has unfortunately left the land of the living.. |
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