Computer lab maintenance needed
September 23, 2011 2:08 PM Subscribe
I manage a classroom of about 30 laptops. Because we we have no funding for upgrades it is up to me to keeps these things running. Everything my students do is web based, so a bootable CD running some form of kiosk type OS that serves up only a browser seems like a perfect choice. Can someone recommend a solution or even suggest another way to manage the lab?
ChromeOS on a bootable USB flash drive
posted by blue_beetle at 2:22 PM on September 23, 2011
posted by blue_beetle at 2:22 PM on September 23, 2011
Are these computers identically configured? Do they come with Windows XP licenses, or?
posted by Chuckles at 2:50 PM on September 23, 2011
posted by Chuckles at 2:50 PM on September 23, 2011
EasyPeasy is a good Live CD for web browsing. It has other apps included but it's designed around use in netbooks so the interface is very streamlined with emphasis on having one app open at a time.
posted by burnmp3s at 2:51 PM on September 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by burnmp3s at 2:51 PM on September 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
In the computer lab I used to manage, I installed Linux Mint (chosen because it includes Flash out of the box) on all of the machines and used Lethe to make it reset state with every reboot, Deep Freeze style. Meaning, users could do whatever the heck they wanted and when the computer rebooted, all of their changes/downloaded viruses vanished into thin air.
It worked great, ran faster than a livecd, users didn't feel constrained, and the freeze couldn't be circumvented by simply popping a disk out of the drive.
Note, this method is not for the novice Linux admin. Lethe's documentation is poor and mostly in Spanish. A lot of jiggery-pokery is required to make Mint reboot on a time-out, reboot as the only shutdown option, etc. If you can pull it off, though, it's a terrific setup.
posted by zjacreman at 3:44 PM on September 23, 2011
It worked great, ran faster than a livecd, users didn't feel constrained, and the freeze couldn't be circumvented by simply popping a disk out of the drive.
Note, this method is not for the novice Linux admin. Lethe's documentation is poor and mostly in Spanish. A lot of jiggery-pokery is required to make Mint reboot on a time-out, reboot as the only shutdown option, etc. If you can pull it off, though, it's a terrific setup.
posted by zjacreman at 3:44 PM on September 23, 2011
Try ChromeOS.
If that doesn't suit your needs, move to a smaller Linux distro designed to run entirely in memory (live CDs tend to have poor performance otherwise). Puppy Linux is one such option. If the default setup doesn't have the programs you need, you can find instructions on how to build a custom version of Puppy Linux.
If I had a lot of computers to manage, this is the route I would take. Using a finalized CD-ROM that is not rewriteable would essentially destroy any possibility of malware.
posted by jsturgill at 4:29 PM on September 23, 2011
If that doesn't suit your needs, move to a smaller Linux distro designed to run entirely in memory (live CDs tend to have poor performance otherwise). Puppy Linux is one such option. If the default setup doesn't have the programs you need, you can find instructions on how to build a custom version of Puppy Linux.
If I had a lot of computers to manage, this is the route I would take. Using a finalized CD-ROM that is not rewriteable would essentially destroy any possibility of malware.
posted by jsturgill at 4:29 PM on September 23, 2011
If you have MacBooks or iBooks, there's NetBoot.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:49 PM on September 23, 2011
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:49 PM on September 23, 2011
Puppy Linux is a great choice. It boots up fast and works great on old hardware. It has a whole suite of essential apps aside from the browser.
posted by Crotalus at 10:25 PM on September 23, 2011
posted by Crotalus at 10:25 PM on September 23, 2011
Ubuntu Live CD. Specifically the netbook remix.
posted by dougrayrankin at 4:03 AM on September 24, 2011
posted by dougrayrankin at 4:03 AM on September 24, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Mantix at 2:09 PM on September 23, 2011