ubuntu for Internet cafe

[David Fawcett]

Hey Tom,

If I was going to run an internet cafe (I'm assuming 15-20 users at once
here) and wanted to restrict what my users could do with the PCs then I
would consider running a server and thin clients out to each of the
desktops.

The term is virtualization, or more specifically for your needs: desktop
virtualization.

Just to be even handed about this it's my understanding that RedHat does
this sort of think particularly well although Ubuntu Server is certainly
capable.

Here is a Redhat video about desktop virtualization:
http://www.redhat.com/virtualization/rhev/desktop/

Wikipedia article for LTSP:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Terminal_Server_Project

Neat video on how to install and setup LTSP:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yD0QV_Cm2w&feature=related

The benefits of virtualization are:
- Lower cost of deployment on large scales
- Less power use
- More secure
- Users can't 'ruin' the operating system
- Each user can get their own virtual operating system, this can be saved in
it's existing state for repeat customers, or wiped clean and reloaded from
scratch

Since you don't need a hard drive all you really need from the thin client
you can pick them up pretty darn cheap. For example: with a 1gb stick of ram
this would probably do quite nicely:
http://www.zotacusa.com/zotac-zbox-zboxsd-id10-u-intel-atom-nm-10-express-1-66-ghz-dual-core-all-in-one-mini-pc.html

Still, scale is very important to making this worth while and I'm not sure
how large your internet cafe is.

On Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 7:09 PM, Tom Sparks <tom_a_sparks at yahoo.com.au>wrote:

> I am wondering if there is a version of ubuntu for an internet cafe?
> Is there a installable read-only (liveCD like) version of ubuntu?
>
> tom_a_sparks
> Light travels faster then sound, which is why some people appear bright,
> until you hear them speak
>
>
>
>
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