Re: [K12OSN] Using iBooks as Thin Clients

[Steve Wright <paua quicksilver net nz>]

On Thu, 2004-02-12 at 04:52, Henry Hartley wrote:
> The person heading up our middle school effort (the school has been adding a
> grade each year since opening with Pre-K, K and 1st in 1999 and we're adding
> sixth and seventh next year) would like to have Apple iBooks for each middle
> school student.  The idea is to provide a wireless network that that they
> can use them in class and at home (off the network, obviously).  I don't
> think anything has been purchased yet and she is one of the three who will
> be at the meeting on Friday.  I'm sure she will ask about incorporating them
> into whatever system we use.  Is it possible (easy would be great but as
> long as it can be done, I'll be happy) to use these machines as thin clients
> on a K12LTSP system?  They would need to dual-boot between K12LTSP and their
> regular Mac OS, I suppose, or they would be worthless outside the school.
> Are there any issues other than speed with using wireless connections?

Security is often raised, and I think the network should be secured
against drive-by freeloaders.

Over wireless, I would not be surprised if OSX users could simply ssh to
their Linux account and load their X application.  Yes, it will be laggy
if a room full of 30 kids do it at once, but otherwise quite do-able
IMO.

I am using a debian laptop right now, with `ssh server.ltsp -l steve
evolution`  and it's not laggy at all over 802.11b.  11g will be better
still.  Running the whole window manager over wireless is slow.


/steve