LTSP Machine Recommendation - 64 vs. 32 bit, etc.

[Daniel J. Summers]

Good morning.

I'm working with a new school start-up, and have run across edubuntu.  I 
downloaded the Live CD version, and boy am I impressed!  :)  Also, about 
5 months ago, I had run across the LTSP, and really liked that concept.  
When I found that edubuntu comes with LTSP, that has me really wanting 
to get this to work.  However, I do want to make sure that the proposed 
structure I come up with will serve the school's needs, and provide for 
a little room for growth as well.  They have 3 Pentium II machines that 
have been donated, and one of them has had W2K loaded on it.  The 
performance is less than stellar...  and that's being very generous.

I also have tried to run Linux before on a 64-bit AMD processor.  It 
worked well, but there were some annoyances that I was willing to live 
with, but the school probably doesn't want to.  I've read about ubuntu's 
out-of-the-box 32-bit apps working out-of-the-box on the 64-bit 
architecture.  How is this implemented, from the user end?  Are there 
shortcuts for Firefox 64-bit and Firefox 32-bit?  Are apps like Firefox 
only 32-bit, so that they'll support most of the plug-ins?

Along those lines - if one were choosing between a Core 2 Duo chip and 
an AMD 64x2 chip, which would be better suited for the LTSP server?  I'm 
thinking that 1 GB of RAM would be sufficient for the box, and a fast 
hard drive.  Also, is there a good site to document modifying the 
default user desktop?  And finally, is there any way to try out 
SchoolTool without installing edubuntu on a box, maybe a demo site or 
something?

Sorry for all the questions - like I said, I'm really thinking that this 
is the way to go, but I want to make sure I have all the concerns 
addressed so the folks at the school will be as impressed as I am.  :)  
Thanks!


Daniel J. Summers