Stateless linux and an idea of mine for SMALL networks without servers

[Nic]

I was fighting the usual problems with networks and came up with the
following dream to make my life easier as a network admin. Basically I
am tired of fixing things, of worrying if a hard disk will die, of
having to deal with data access, backup etc...

Anyway here it is: Basically, I suggest that (almost) all PCs in the
network be laptops with the exact same image. Furthermore, they
replicate their HD continuously!!! I am not sure of the technology to
use here, but I thought something deriving from the P-to-P technology,
some distributed file system, some database replication technology or
even freenet could be a good base. Since every laptop will contain ALL
the data for the whole network, every laptop uses hardware encryption
at the hard disk level using an external dongle/card/whatever.

Additionally, every login ALSO uses a dongle/card for access to their
account. This makes it (almost) impossible for somebody stealing a
laptop to get access to the whole data. Additionally, it makes it
(alomst) impossible for somebody to fet to other people's data. If a
system dies, you just get a new one and sync it up. However, one main
idea is that you always have EVERYTHING you need right where you are,
no matter WHERE you are. Also, there is no UPS to worry about.
Communication between PCs could be implemented using VPN/IPSec or
whatever other protected mechanism. Internet access would have to be
"sandboxed", but UNIX based OSes allow for that easily. That's the
gist of it. A lot of things can be configured in many ways, but the
whole point here is to simplify people's life.

I wanted to post it here for other people to use if they think it's a
good idea. (and also to preempt any proprietary company from saying
"me first")



I posted this somewhere and somebody pointed me toward stateless linux
and it seems pretty cool and close to what I was thinking of. I'll
look smoe more into it, but does anybody see this as useful for VERY
SMALL networks? (I already got bashed by enterprise admins sneernig at
people who don't want a rack server, so if that's your intent, just
reply "me too").

Nick