[vox] LTSP, a School District, and Windows...

[R. Douglas Barbieri]

Steve Hargadon wrote:
> On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 12:25:27 -0800, Edward Elliott <ed_elliott at email.com> wrote:
> 
>>Steve, let me drop a note and contribute a bit of background research in case that's helpful.
> 
> 
> Great feedback.  I don't think it's the licensing fees, necessarily,
> or the alternative programs available (which I looked at as well)--I
> think it was more like this:
> 
> "We support 4,000 computers with two technicians, and we aren't sure
> we even want to talk to you.  We have several Windows programs which
> we depend on for state reporting on student progress.  You say you can
> run Windows program using Linux thin client, but I don't want to have
> to switch the licensing the I currently have.  I have zero time to
> talk, but if you'll show me you can run Mavis Beacon and Accelerated
> Reader, then I'm willing to make the time to talk to you."
> 
> Now, I'm not sure I'm willing to jump through these hoops, but I want
> at least to figure out what I'm up against.  This district has
> multiple campuses, lots of students and pcs, and it would be a
> significant opportunity to showcase the technology.

It really depends on the applications themselves. For example, my 
chiropractor has some (old) applications he really needed to do his 
business. One is a DOS-based patient management system and the other is 
a form generation program for insurance based-claims (which runs under 
Windows 95). I tried Dosemu and Wine to no avail. I found that Win4Lin 
running Windows 95 was my best bet, since it ran both applications 
flawlessly.

The caveat is that they can only run these apps under one user since a) 
they only have one licensed copy of Windows 95 and b) they have one 
Win4Lin seat license. The good news is that these are just licensing 
issues--the thin client technology could run a huge office full.

I was told by Netraverse (who manufactures Win4Lin) that if I wanted to 
have multiple copies of Win4Lin running, that I'd need to buy their 
Terminal Server package plus have an individual license of Windows for 
each user. We all agreed that one user would be sufficient. The other 
users log into Linux and run native, open source applications for basic 
office tasks (Internet, Office software, etc) which they are quite happy 
with.

The upshot is that if Mavis Beacon and Accelerated Reader can run under 
Windows 98 and don't require certain DirectX/3D features, you could use 
Win4Lin to demonstrate this. The other option to try is CodeWeavers' 
CrossOver Office (a Wine based technology that you have to pay per user 
for). CrossOver Office runs Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop, and it 
might be able to hack the Windows apps in question.

You can get a trial copy of CrossOver office, but Win4Lin does not have 
such an animal.

Good luck!

Doug

PS: There is one other option I know of, and that's VmWare, which is 
more expensive than either CrossOver or Win4Lin. VmWare can handle 
Windows NT/2K/XP (unlike Win4Lin). You also can get a demo version to 
test it out. As I understand it, the math department at UCD runs Linux 
and VmWare to handle their legacy Windows applications.

> Steve
> _______________________________________________
> vox mailing list
> vox at lists.lugod.org
> http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox


-- 
R. Douglas Barbieri
doug at dooglio.net
http://www.dooglio.net
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: doug.vcf
Type: text/x-vcard
Size: 161 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://ns1.livepenguin.com/pipermail/vox/attachments/20040928/571e0ea6/doug.vcf