Re: Need Linux on a bunch of computers quickly and easily

From: JM (NO_at_SPAM.com)
Date: 09/17/03 

Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 18:53:23 GMT

Jason Victor wrote:

> Hello all.
>
> I have a problem. I have fifteen kids with Windows laptops, and I need
> all of them to be able to use Linux as a programming environment.
> Basically, they need to be able to boot into Linux into some sort of
> programming environment, work on stuff, save stuff, and then reboot
> back into Windows. Partitioning is not an easy option... in this
> situation it is too risky and impractical.
>
> I considered VMWare. I could just have all of them install VMWare and
> then I could set up a Linux "VMWare install" on my own machine and
> simply give them the hard disk files. The problem with this is that it
> is oppressively slow, and they might not all of machines capable of
> running VMware at all. Furthermore, it is uncertain whether I could
> get the funding to get 15 licenses of VMWare.
>
> Off the top of my head, I can think of those "Bootable CD" distros and
> the distros that install into a FAT partition. Does anybody have any
> suggestions? I'm searching for simplicity... say, a bootable CD with
> IceWM, xterm and GCC or something, that can save files to a FAT or
> NTFS partition.
>
> Can anybody help me out with some ideas?
>
> Thanks!

A student learns as much through their own experimentation as through doing
the lessons. For this reason you should, IMNSHO, use a bootable CD. There
are a number of them that have a complete disto available. Hopefully you
can get a fat32 partion somewhere on the laptops to keep the students work
in. Or they could just save on a floppy.

If you go the dual boot way I can see something like this happening;

for(student=0; student<class_size; student++)
printf("Hey my laptop doesn't boot!!!!\n);

Here is a link to a list and description of live-cd distros:
http://www.distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=cd

Also you might want to check out the Slackware live site. They have a
downloadable iso image and they have all the scripts that was used to make
the image. From this you could roll your own.

http://www.slackware-live.org/

Go to the download section to find the scripts.

JM

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