Linux, Internet Cafe, Haiti...

[Joseph Kubik]

Here are the notes from setting up a thin client based Linuxcaffe
(www.linuxcaffe.ca)
http://heinous.org/wiki/Linux_Stuff#Project_specific

You should be able to use any pentium or better as a thin client. I'd
just toss the 486's, personally.
The machines probably won't book from the network, so you'll have to
do like we did with the laptop, and create a boot disk that points to
a LTSP server.

Good luck!
-Joseph-

On 1/8/06, Jamon Camisso <jamon.camisso-H217xnMUJC0sA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> I'm going to be setting up an internet cafe in Haiti next month. The
> project is completely voluntary and I am almost solely responsible for
> the computery bits.
>
> I checked out all the donated hardware for the cafe today and found that
> there are about 10 working computers, ranging from 486dx's to 300mhz
> celerons. The machine with the most ram I could find had 64mb. With this
> in mind, my immediate thought is to use a terminal based system and
> simply purchase a decent server to run the whole operation.
>
> Most of the computers came from the Canadian Government, with NT4.0 and
> the dx'es from the University of Ottawa with Novell something or other
> and Win3.1. All the computers have network cards, some with co-ax and
> others not. All are ISA of course.
>
> My first question then: how hard will it be to get the computers to boot
> from the network and how much (if at all) will their aging components
> affect both their access to the server and operations on the server itself?
>
> My second question, which arises in part from the first: which distro(s)
> would work well in this proposed environment? My immediate thought is
> something like Fedora, SuSE, Ubuntu etc. My reasons for this are in part
> due to the fact that I'll be remotely checking in and troubleshooting
> and am familiar with those three distros, both as server and as desktop.
>
> My third question: what type of network would work best? The cafe will
> have a satellite connection and will be carrying multiple voip
> connections for international calls. For most users speed will not be
> much of an issue since in the area I'll be working (just outside
> Jacmel), there is absolutely no internet or international call
> capability, so anything is better than nothing.
>
> I'll try to make it out to the meeting this week? if anyone feels like
> giving me any advice or pointers.
>
> Thanks for any thoughts,
>
> Jamon
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