[Lias] Linux on the desktop - NO?

[Phil Scarratt]

Simon Bryan wrote:

> Hi all,
> I would like some opinions and feedback on my experiences so far with trying to
> setup Linux for desktop use in the school.
> 
> We are using RH on a Linux Terminal Server:
> The GOOD:
> Use legacy machines
> Takes only 5 minutes to setup a new workstation
> Plenty of applications
> License costs are almost non-existent
> 
> The BAD:
> Seems impossible to create and maintain a standard desktop for users a la Windows
> Profiles
/etc/skel should work. At the very least a script run at logon to 
restore various items has to work. All things linux are stored in 
files...it's just a matter of finding where and copying. We used KDE 
which I think is a little easier to maintain a common desktop - could be 
wrong...
> I get many web browser crashes (java related I think - especially with Galeon) that
> lock the session and persist beyond a logoff and login. The only solution I have
> found is to delete and re-create the user directory, which is not very satisfactory!
I'd agree not satisfactory at all!! We used to have a lot of problems 
causing session freeze (and sometimes persisted beyond logoff), however, 
these were to do with user processes hanging around (particularly 
Netscape and every so often with OpenOffice). Killing off the processes 
fixed it. I used Galeon for awhile and found it unstable on LTSP. We 
have Mozilla and Konqueror (KDE's browser - unfortunately not overly 
DHTML/CSS compliant) available as browsers and seems to work OK.
> Difficult, if not impossible, to 'map' drives so that users can get data from a
> range of sources.
Also, one of the things we restore in a users "profile" is a link on the 
desktop to various "shares". This could either be a link on the desktop 
or in their home drive - incidentally with our LTSP, the /home directory 
on the server is NFS mounted to the LTSP terminal as /home (or the 
location as specified in /etc/passwd) hence when a user logs on, their 
home directory is the same as if they logged on locally to the server. 
These same home directories are also shared via SMB for the windows side 
of the network - hence the same directory is accessed under windows and 
ltsp. As I can see from other emails, this doesn't apply directly but 
should be able to be modified to suit - have you tried NFS mounting the 
SMB mounted share from the server? Not sure if this is possible or not.
> 
> I feel at the moment that the 'Bad' outweigh the 'Good'. Any opinions? Feel free to
> tell ma I am an idiot and all the listed 'Bad' things are just my ignorance! :-)
> ____________________
> Simon Bryan
> IT Manager
> OLMC Parramatta
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