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@Chris_Jones & @Gatt It will run from 10.30 to about 13.30. If you are interested drop me a PM and I will get the info across to you. I could do with knowing ASAP as I need to get final numbers for the catering sorted

@Ric_ My way is more fun

It will take a bit of jigging around but the way I would do it is to: Put the Linux Mail server in front of your exchange server and use it for the kids and map the staff accounts to be handed off to the exchange. If you use something like MailScanner on the Linux box it can also act a protection unit for you exchange box: Typical set up we would build for this is OS - Ubuntu LTS 6.06 Postfix - MailScanner-Spamassassin-CLAMAV as the MTA combo Cyrus IMAP as the storage medium for the kids email Squirrelmail as the web access for the kids You can either have OpenLDAP running on the box for kids user details or get the box to auth against AD As I say, it may take a little re modelling of the current setup but should be easy enough Andy

Not as yet, that is a question I will ask Rick tomorrow. I will let you know soonest

We have just started playing with this and my guys are working on lock down now. Seems to be going ok. As for the publishing of apps......what a pain on the requirements. We use sgd for this which is platform agnostic.

How far from St Cuthberts are you ?

Cool, It will be worth while. The kit is well worth a butchers

We have about 30 people coming from Derbyshire, Lancs and West Yorks. Should be an interesting day. If the timing is not good for you, we could look at another date. Andy

Sun Ray and SGD is a good way to go. SGD has the ability to load balance servers but for Sun Ray we use 2x as Wes said. We have done some testing on TS2008 and all looks good Sun Ray/SGD licensing costs are much cheaper than Citrix and the feature set is similar. Sun are working hard on developing both systems to increase the AV capabilities for schools. Both systems just work and give you realyy power and flexibilty

OT Kmount, did you get my PM about a butchers in Northants ? Andy

Wes, what are you looking for it to do. If you want high powered scalable mail services without groupware. Postfix, MailScanner, Spamassassin, ClamAV and Cyrus IMAP forms a powerful suite. We have built it like this for around 35,000 users on one system and have a system running in a Northants school based on this. We ourselves use Zimbra and can recommend it highly If you need any pointers give me a shout Andy

Now you really are pushing it

Just wanting to pick you up on this comment "Citrix XenApp (formerly Presentation Server) is by far the best way of managing your thin client setup" Us Sun Ray dudes would beg to differ Andy

Ric thanks for this. I will attempt over the next few days to get some useful info up about SGD and Sun Ray. Andy

I think a full distro may well be looking the wrong direction, Jo has done a huge amount of work down this route already. There would be a large amount of duplication (all too common is the OSS world) Maybe it would be better to divert effort to finding out what help Jo would like to get Karoshi moving forward faster. Another option would be to look at the areas where schools really need help with getting Linux deployed. Speaking from experience, Linux desktops are still going to be hugely controversial. Linux is not the issue, it is the lack of apps and Teachers having spent huge amounts of time building lessons around those apps. Suddenly taking them away cause "issues" I would be tempted to look at some Edugeek appliance type builds: Edugeek E-Learning platform (Moodle, Elgg etc) Edugeek Network Monitoring System ( Nagios, cacti or opennms) Edugeek Proxy Filter (Squid, Dansguardian etc) That is my take on it. Andy

I have an nimber of schools in the Northants area running a load of TS and thin client. You would be more than welcome to arrange a visit to one of those Drop me a PM and we can talk a bit more Andy

You can also use 2x to load balance Terminal Servers Lot cheaper than Citrix

How many users are you wanting to run on it ? In our exerience 64bit will seriously limit what software you can run on it. TS in schools is a tricky job Andy

You could look at using Sun Secure Global Desktop You can get apps from TS units integrated into the start menu. We have a number of customers using it to deploy SIMS to laptops in school and at home. I can launch SIMS here on my Ubuntu workstation Andy

Can I suggest that you look at Sun Ray and Sun Secure Global Desktop also. The cost is less than Citrix and is a chunk easier to manage. We have a number of schools using it. Some are users of this site. I can arrange a visit to one of our schools if you would like. We usually work on 30 concurrent connection to the application server which is 2 Dual core 2216 Opterons 4 GB RAM 2 mirrored SATA/SAS drives These come in at around £1,950 each For Sun Ray SGD you will need another unit running these bits Drop me a PM and I can talk you through it a bit more. Or drop Grumbledook a message. He is one of my customers. Tis good kit Andy

We are looking at deployment of Sun Ray thins into primary schools at the moment. It would be interesting to get a list of your existing software. Can you PM me a list of what you have/NEED Cheers Andy

hehe. That really does sound familiar. I think by the end of next month I may have 2300 of them...... Good thinking Grumbledook Credit to EE and Sun to for making it happen

This could turn into a long thread. Liverpool St to Edgware Rd Change Earls Court.................etc

Underground from Liverpool St on Circle line to South Kensington Change on to District Line at South Kensington to Earls Court. If the weather is nice walk to Olympia if not Underground runs from Earls Court to Olympia. Hope this helps

Give me a call on 07983616419 and I will get the details sorted Thanks Andy