School Project; please read

[Dick Dowdell]

Brian,

Given your requirements, I would highly recommend using the FREE VMware
Server (http://www.vmware.com/download/server/).  Any solution that requires
the re-partitioning of an MS Windows hard drive is very risky and can easily
lose data or render the PC unbootable with Windows.  Unfortunately, Windows
OSs (2K, XP, Vista) were implemented under the assumption that Microsoft
products are the only OSs anyone might have running on a PC.  They don't
really even play well with each other.

You can download the Windows version of VMware and get as many installation
keys for your students as you need.  I'd do a complete Ubuntu installation
under VMware with all the software you need for the class.  You can zip up
(Windows utility) the files that make up the Ubuntu virtual machine files
and burn them to a DVD.  The virtual machine files can be unzipped and run
on any PC with VMware installed.

If you are interested in this approach, I can give you detailed,
step-by-step, instructions.  For years, I've been using this approach for
testing Linux software on Linux and Windows hosts because you cannot screw
up the host from inside a virtual machine and you can take snapshots of
virtual machines and restore them to their pre-test state if there are
problems.  A Ubuntu virtual machine can have full network access and can
apply any standard Ubuntu updates as needed.

Regards,
Dick Dowdell


On 10/16/07, Brian Fahrlander <brian at fahrlander.net> wrote:
>
>
>      Well, for the first time in literally years, a break appears: if I
> can write a how-to on setting up an "Introduction to Linux" class, the
> local college will PAY me to do it.  Teaching...getting paid...two
> things I thought I wouldn't really see again...   :>
>
>      Technical questions: ('cause this is that list)
>
>      They have all Windows boxes; probably 2k3 or XP. Vista, if they
> hurt someone in a past life...it is enough to have them resize, say, 5G
> of their drives to install Linux?  How tough is that? (I've not
> maintained Windows this century...)
>
>      Is it possible to hand out "Live" CDs and do anything meaningful on
> them, like learning spreadsheets, word processing, etc?  I'm assuming
> any school work would have to connect to a shared-space, someplace...
>
>      Are there other low-cost ways to present Linux to a room full of
> students, easily?  (I'm aware of LTSP; I'm also aware of netbooting
> having changed drastically since I used it...but I love the idea)
>
>      If we can get this class going, there's a good chance of exposure!
> (And I stay out of child-support prison...)
> --
>   ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>   Brian Fahrländer                 Christian, Conservative, and Technomad
>   Evansville, IN                              http://Fahrlander.net/brian
>   ICQ: 5119262                         AOL/Yahoo/GoogleTalk: WheelDweller
>   ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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-- 
Regards,
Dick Dowdell
508-498-7919/508-528-4018
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