Edubuntu 7.10 - A Released Debacle and a Practice in Failure

[Bill Moseley]

On Tue, Dec 11, 2007 at 08:14:23AM -1000, R. Scott Belford wrote:
> We can't say that 7.10 built on the functionality of 7.04 - it actually 
> regressed.  Now, if you are upgrading from 7.04, I guess that you can 
> get away with that claim since new installations don't work for most, 
> but upgrades from 7.04 seem to mask the bugs.  We *definitely* cannot be 
> making the claim that "Thin client deployments offers clients a lower 
> TCO (total cost of ownership), simpler installation and easier 
> maintenance than typical IT deployments".  The K12LTSP can, Debian-edu 
> can, but Edubuntu has absolutely no right.  We can't even support the 
> same older clients used by 7.04 (without hacking an lts.conf file).

I'm not running Gutsy in production yet (so my comments may be of
little value), but I installed a fresh 7.10 Edubuntu and the clients
worked the first time.  I was impressed at how easy it worked
considering how little I knew about LTSP.

Now, it took me a few days to mess with things to get some old
1999-2000 iMacs to boot.  And I needed a little help from the list for
a few items, but overall it worked amazingly well.

And I've had kids use the clients and they seem very happy.

It does seem (from watching the list) like some serious problems show
up under loaded conditions with some applications, but I have not been
in that situation yet.

My biggest frustration is finding items on the wiki.  Seems like
there's a lot of good information available, but I never found an easy
way to scan the wiki pages.  I miss good old manuals.  With chapters
and sections, logically organized.  Printed, too.

I also wish I could find an up-to-date list of schools using LTSP,
too, and a description of the experience moving to LTSP, how it's
helped or not, and statements of cost savings.  I have found trying to
explain LTSP to others that the first question they ask is who else is
using it.


-- 
Bill Moseley
moseley at hank.org