LTSP Success Stories

LTSP is in use all over the world, and we really like to capture some success stories from people who have deployed solutions based on it. This page may shown only the newest additions. Go to the bottom of the page and chose a previous archive or total history to see the older entries.

Some people may find it helpful for you to post details about your hardware and software. This will give them an idea of how much resources are required to run an environment. Suggested hardware details: CPU brand, speed and cache; total memory. Software details: LTSP version, window manager name and version, typical applications, kernel version (2.4 or 2.6?). Other details: number of total and concurrent users, whether the server is over- or under-loaded.

Faróis do Saber em Curitiba com LTSP, Brasil

Há mais de 3 anos os Faróis do Saber de Curitiba no Paraná já utilizam a tecnologia do LTSP, está muito mais do que testada, em 45 Faróis do Saber e 5 Bibliotecas, possuindo 9 terminais e 1 servidor Ltsp, no total são 450 terminais e 50 servidores, os terminais foram doados pelo Banco do Brasil, Volvo e pela Prefeitura de Curitiba. O Instituto Curitiba de Informática mantém a manutenção das máquinas prestando o serviço de suporte técnico. Ainda não há um cálculo da economia gerada, mas sabe-se que foi consideravelmente grande.

Terminais: IBM 300GL, Pentium 166Mhz, 32MB, Placa de Rede RealTek^? 8139-A + EEPROM

Servidores: IBM NetVista^?, Celeron 1.8 Ghz, 512MB, 2 placas de rede RealTek^?, HD 40 GB

Esse é um grande sucesso!!!

-- EltonRauh - 14 Sep 2008

The Main Library of Szczecin University, Poland

We have LTSP deployed over (Screen #1) openSUSE 10.2 GNU/Linux running on a 2x Dual-Core Xeon 5110 1,6 Ghz/ 6GB RAM/ 2x SAS 73 GB 15k and (Screen #2) Windows Server 2003 by virtualization over openSUSE 10.3 (64bit) on a 2x Quad-Core Xeon 5310 1,6 Ghz/ 8GB RAM/2x 149 GB SAS.

This currently serves 40 thin clients (Celeron/Pentium) in our main building. Everything working on Gigabit network.

CPTTM Cyber-Lab adopts thin clients to deliver mobility & availability while cutting admin cost

We're a branch office of the Macau Productivity and Technology Transfer Center. Using LTSP we enable our staff members to move around, replace faulty workstations in a snap, while making it super easy to install software updates. For details, see http://www2.cpttm.org.mo/cyberlab/cio-news/issue24.html#ThinClient.

Local Net Solutions installs 7 school LTSP pilot for Atlanta Public Schools

Atlanta Public Schools, an urban school system with nearly 100 school campuses across metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia contracted with Local Net Solutions to implement a large scale pilot of LTSP for use by K12 students for the 2006-2007 school year.

• 4400 students
• 2200 thin clients
• 233 classrooms
• 31 servers
• 6 months
• 4 engineers
• 1 HUGE success

The main boot/application servers were HP DL385 - Dual core, dual processor AMD Opteron 285's with 8 GB RAM and 3 36GB SCSI drives and 6 Gigabit ethernet (4 ports bonded to be one fat pipe to provide DHCP and data to the clients). Each school has 1 to 5 application servers with 70 to 120 clients per server. Each school also has a DL385 with 6 142GB SCSI drives acting as a common storage area for students.

The clients were HP T5125's with an HP 15" LCD monitor with sound bar. Everything on the clients was fully supported with LTSP.

There were many challenges with this scale or operations: The need to know the physical location of each thin client as well as the network location, the sheer number of cardboard boxes to be broken down and discarded, all networking was required to be Cat5e or better, fan noise for classroom switches, physical table space to place 6 to 12 client stations in each classroom.

In the end, the teachers are very pleased and the principals are reporting that student math scores are noticably improved. Currently, Atlanta Public Schools intends to use this model for all future technology refresh events for all of the remaining 90+ schools.

FCSE at GIK Institute, Pakistan

We have LTSP deployed over Debian GNU/Linux running on a P4 3.0 GHz/ 01GB RAM/ 80GB HDD.

This currently serves 25 thin clients (P2/P3) in one of our labs at the Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering at GIK Institute, Pakistan .

These client machines  most of them are almost eight years old  easily manage to provide user-experience of a modern graphical desktop computer.

For one whole semester, this setup has performed well beyond initial expectations. Plans are under way for initial extension to 40 thin clients.

The WoRP^? Project Team, Dec 29, 2006.

Tameer Microfinance Bank - A Bank with a vision to empower unbanked -- , Pakistan

LTSP was not unfamiliar to me when I was asked for a solution that can save Licensing & Infarastructure Cost. LTSP is the only matured solution with ovewhelming support available in Opensource Community. I already had a flavour of LTSP 4.1.x in my previous organizations and various communities and schools anc academic institutions. We assess and finally decided to take this initiative to become ever first Bank in Pakistan with total Opensourced based Technology from Top to Bottom. In the result of Cost vs Benefits Analysis; we decide to deploy LTSP 4.1.x at our Head Office, Successfully deployed @ Server (unbranded -- self designed) with AMD 2x 446 64 Bit Opteron, 4GB Memory, 200x4 SATA Hotswapable, Highpoint Raid Controll, Redundant Powersupplies with SUSE Linux 10.x 64Bit. It went thru a test phase,load balancing, process testing and finally we planned for end user Training of Open Office, Kontact / Kmail. We select P-III (used-branded HP Pavallion) as our workstation. The whole project deployed successfully with Printer (emulated as Network Printers). Its now become our Technology Standard for our all branches nationwide. LTSP is just peace of mind for Administrators, Support Engineers, Management (Cost point of view), Users as Centralize Data / Profile Management, Virus Free. The whole setup is backed / authenticated by world fame Opensource Dirctory Server -- LDAP v 3.0 and my branches are connected via OpenVPN^?. We are now deploying Bacula as Backup Tool for User data and Profiles. We are also moving to deploy Openfs to centralize all profiles for roaming and transparency. This LTSP is also serving our Training Department for all Media Requirements like CD, CD Buring, USB etc. I must say -- Linux (LTSP) is stable, secured, virusfree and Dependable. I thank LTSP wiki sectino/ community to provide me an opportunity to say my words and publish my success stories. Thank you all.

Clube de Informática no CCOP - public internet access point, training and computer service - Porto, Portugal

We find out about LTSP in a Linux magasine and after some tests we were received by an association, Círculo Católico de Operários do Porto (CCOP), where we opened the Clube de Informática, for internet access point, technical assistance and training in informatics. It has been opened to the public on a daily bases since March, 2005. With a very small investment, we were able to create a network with one 1 server and 4 terminals and during one year we growed to 2 servers with 8 terminals each one.

Hardware configuration is between the limits sugested in this site and it function properly. The applications we use are Fedora Core 5, Mozilla Firefox, aMSN, Thunderbird, Open Office, Kaffeine.

We share the same internet connection, and some directories, with another two computers, one Linux and the other Windows XP. We can access from each LTSP terminal at the time, the Windows computer and applications, by r-desktop. In the Linux computer we use a free invoicing application for Linux, in Portuguese, Evaristo.

The biggest problems we had in the LTSP terminals were:

• the sound and video, wich we solved using the Kaffeine.
• the USB drives for common users . This we have partially solved using MtoolsFM^?.
• the Gaim application requiered always our help for the first times using, so we add the aMSN (MSN is mostly used in Portugal), and now, it is all ok.

Most of our clients are now using the LTSP terminals without any special training or help from our side.

The Clube de Informatica it is very greatfull to the developpers of the LTSP.

Robert e Delia Benedek, Clube de Informática, http://www.clubedeinfo.org

Yet Another Corporate Desktops at Pskov Milling Plant LLC, Pskov, Russian Federation

We have avoid different windows versions on our work places. And now we have ~ 60 thin stantions with LTSP 4.1+hands

Hardware: Server is just usual P4 3000Hz with HT, 3Gb RAM, software RAID 0 on SATA disks with Raiser FS 3.6 Clients - different old PC, from P1-166 to P2/P3, with (maximum) 128 Mb RAM, without HDDs at all. Some client's have printers (HP, Epson), CD-drives, floppy and USB-mass storage devices. For boot we are using Intel and Dlink NIC with PXE support. Some clients that can not load NIC bios start from floppy.

Software: On server we are using Suse 9.1 (2.6.4) and planning to replace it with Suse 10. On clients we add some custom scripts for logging, monitoring and access local devices. Most of clients just get their desktop via XDMCP from server and use a lot of applications. Desktop is KDE powered with kiosk mode. They use OpenOffice^? 2.0, Firefox, Thunderbird, PSI (for corporate jabber) mostly. And games of course. Several clients have sound support to play music with XMMS and even video with mplayer. For launch windows specific applications we use Wine as soon as possible, or if we have no choice RDesktop, for applications hosted on Windows 2003 Server with terminal services.

Now we are trying to find solution for using two LTSP-servers (old and new with AMD Athlon X2 CPU) as load-balancing cluster.

-- YuriKolesnikov - 03 Apr 2006

Debian-CE/ACR Digital Inclusion Center, Ceará, Brazil

The Project 'Digital Inclusion with GNU/Linux @ ACR' is a voluntary contribution from Debian-CE members to the digital inclusion project of ACR that if gives in the quarter Mounte Castelo in Fortaleza city.

The project consists of giving technician support in the maintenance of computers and system, that uses Debian GNU/Linux and LTSP to provides stations for the educational use.

The computers are donated to ACR by ONG's, companies and volunteers. Currently, the project takes care of approximately 400 devoid childrens. In case that you has some computer or the old hardware and wants to help the project, enter in contact with us so we can make possible that more children can be taken care by the project.

You can visit your web site hosted by Debain-CE community

http://projetos.debian-ce.org/idlinuxacr/

-- AlexandreCavalcanteAlencar - 17 Nov 2005

Dr. V. N. Bedekar's Institute of Research and Management Studies, Thane, India

VPM's Dr. V. N Bedekar Institute of Research and Management Studies located in Jnanadweep, Chendni, Thane, Maharashtra, India has a setup of 50 Thinclients served by two HA-DRBD enabled servers (Dual Opteron,4GB,2x80GB). This setup went operational from mid-August 2005. The technology was provided by Anant Corporation, Thane. The setup serves Institute's office staff, faculty, classrooms and Computer Centre.

VPM's Polytechnic also has 5 labs with 10 thin clients and a server each.

In all there are 100 Thin clients using LTSP to operate

Skegness Grammar School - UK

Skegness Grammar School is on the east coast of England and has been running LTSP and Open Source software for 3 years now. We have over 100 terminals on 4 application servers arranged in two main teaching rooms and several clusters and individual machines throughout the school. All the curriculum teaching is done using LTSP Terminals from KS3 to KS5.

Convertion of Holy Cross School in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

The Prairie Linux User Group based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada was approached to convert a local private school to GNU/Linux. The story was covered by the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter and can be found at the following URL: http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/20050509-newsletter.xml#doc_chap4

LTSP Installation at Central Computer Facility, National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, INDIA

I am a LINUX enthusiast for the last 3 years, to make LINUX more popular at my office I1 created a 15 node LTSP setup which is used by the users out here for surfing the Internet, checking mails and doing official work using Open Office. It gives me great pleasure to say that I m working towards improving this great software by improving the local device support.Now the local devices can be automounted as per the hostname and that they an be accessed from the desktop itself. The whole setup is working fine and we plan to make use of the same application in our next projects as well. Hope evrything works well.

Corporate Desktops - Nashik, Maharashtra, India

I suppose I don't have to detail the reliability and support costs of Windows desktops. The management of C&M Poultry were looking for a better solution and decided to give GNU/Linux a try. Within three months, I changed about 50 computers from Windows into LTSP thin clients. Backups are now centralized. C&M is very happy with the reliability. The only snag is that they can't find a replacement for me. There are very few people in Nashik with GNU/Linux experience since most of the good people are hired away by foreign software firms. So I'm stuck doing basic, day-to-day system administration work. Ick.

-- JoshuaPritikin - 27 Jan 2005

Internet Kiosks - Chapel Hill, NC, USA

We deployed Firefox only kiosks using LTSP in the student union at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Using IceWM, Firefox and KDM for auto login running on RedHat AS 3. Currently we have 5 stations running off of one server and plans to expand to include more. We are using HP t5500 diskless clients for the workstations. Firefox is configured to not cache web-sites, not store browser histories and automatically reload when it is closed. Details on the set-up of the locked-down IceWM, Firefox and KDM set-up can be found here:

http://www.unc.edu/~payst/

Many thanks to everyone involved in the LTSP project, we've had over a year of maintenance free, virus free, heavily used kiosks happily serving hundreds of users per day!

-- BrianPayst - 29 Dec 2004

Infocentros Project - Bahia/Brasil

A project of Bahia government that is installing about 100 Infocentros (like telecentros) on many cities of Bahia. We are using Debian-BR-CDD + GNOME-2.6, kernel-2.4.28-fairsched with LTSP. Each Infocentro works with one server and 10 workstations. You can see more details at:

Identidade Digital: http://www.identidadedigital.ba.gov.br
Berimbau Infocentros: http://infocentros.incubadora.fapesp.br

Until 2006 we've probably 217 Infocentros running with LTSP.

-- TiagoVaz - 14 Dec 2004

Mathematics Institute of UFBA - Bahia/Brasil

We have a lot of 486 and pentium 133 machines that works fine as LTSP workstations. Currently we've 2 labs with about 30 workstations each, 1 LTSP server for each. Both servers and stations are simple PCs. Most of stations are IBM 486 and the servers are P4 1.6Ghz with 1GB RAM. We'are using Debian + IceWM running a kernel-2.4.27 fairschedule-patched. So, we also use TWiki! :o) See: http://www.im.ufba.br and http://gavri.im.ufba.br

-- TiagoVaz - 14 Dec 2004

Handsworth Grammar School - England

We have 90 LTSP terminals deployed in the Computing Department. We use standard PCs as servers. Our clients are very cheap machines - we recently bought a batch of second hand PIII 533MHz machines for 17GBP (about $25) each - so we are looking at running local apps. We have recently been involved in a TCO investigation with Becta (http://www.becta.org.uk) - the Governmennts ICT Education agency and been shown to be about half the price of proprietary offerings We have a MoinMoin wiki at http://www.openhgs.org.

Next year we will be installing many more clients.

Northland Polytechnic, Whangarei, New Zealand

A great teaching tool. Part of my second year course for students of the Poly is - quote - a multi-user operating system - unquote. There is nothing better than Linux. LTSP is great for a text-based login (telnet session) to teach the essentials of using the command line in Linux. Then on to the GUI - something that the students will not believe until they have seen and used it. The server is a dual PIII 800 MHZ, 1.25 GB of RAM, 100 Mbs network card. The GUI workstations are either old 500 MHz PIII without a hard disk drive or Dell GX270 (no HDD) that boot using PXE. This year (2005) I will explore further uses of LTSP and encourage my students to do the same.

2008: I am still using LTSP as a teaching tool. The server hardware has been upgraded to a Dell SC1420, dual Xeon processors and 4 GB of RAM. The thin clients can be anything from diskless PIII hardware to the new HP quad-core, 4GB of RAM but diskless workstations. I also teach my students how to set up LTSP.

Northland Polytechnic web site: http://www.northland.ac.nz. My email: mmossom@northtec.ac.nz or mmossom@igrin.co.nz

Adams Brothers Produce, Birmingham, AL, USA

We replaced Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Service Edition with LTSP 2.x many years ago. We've never looked back. We currently serve about 60 clients from four LTSP 4.1 servers at offices in three states. All locations are connected with frame relay and internet connections. We only have about six windows machines company wide, including four laptops. In the beginning we re-used all our pentium or better machines and stuffed them with etherboot cards from disklessworkstations.com, over time we've replaced everything with thin clients, some jammin 125's and some netier boxes we bought second hand for $30-$75 each! Starting out, we made the switch to save on licensing costs that we didn't half understand to begin with. Immediately we realized we were saving far more admin time than licensing costs, because we were able to lock everything down better. LTSP has saved us piles of money over the years. I've seen LTSP evolve over the years and get better and better. Thanks Jim and crew!

Adams Brothers Webiste web site: http://www.adamsbrothers.com My email: jeff@adamsbrothers.com

-- JeffRoberts - 17 Dec 2004

Gould Academy - Bethel, Maine USA

Gould Academy is a small private boarding school. We have been using LTSP since early 2001. Currently, we have approx 90-100 diskless terminals (old PC's and thin clients) all over campus. They are in school labs, classrooms, meeting rooms, faculty appartments, student dorm rooms, etc. This year we started migrating our administrative users. We support approximately 300 users and commonly have 50 or more concurrent sessions on a Dual Xeon 3.2G with 4GB of RAM. The most common applications used are OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Gaim, rox file manager. We also offer terminal sessions remotely using SSHVnc so people who are travelling or day students at home can use our LTSP server from a web browser. We are using sound based on ESD and have many users hooked on Internet radio. A big thanks to Jim and everybody. LTSP is a critical part of the services we offer our school community.

-- DerekDresser - 22 Dec 2004

JC Cerberus - Hengelo, The Netherlands

JC Cerberus is a place where young people (aged 14 to 28) can meet, play, get some help with their homework or with their personal problems. Cerberus is run by volunteers only and receives no funding from goverment or other institutions. With the aid of (RedHat/Fedora) Linux and LTSP we managed to set up some ten computers which are used for internet, chat, making homework, playing music or organising parties. The costs were so low (1 x AMD 1800+ server and 10 x Pentium I 90Mhz), it's cheaper to run this 10 terminals than 1 MS Windows system.
Our most used applications are:
- Mozilla 1.7 (thinking about switching to FireFox 1.0)
- aMSN
- OpenOffice 1.3
- xmms
All running on Fedora Core 2.

Starting this new year we're going to experiment with two items:
- NX clients (have it up and running, but no visible performance gains yet)
- x11vnc (also up and running, now working on some pretty scripts)

For more information (in Dutch) see: http://members.home.nl/jccerberus/trapveld.html, or send a mail to: jccerberus@home.nl


-- MarkLeeuw - 3 Jan 2005

Scouting Hartelgroep, Spijkenisse, The Netherlands

The Hartelgroep has an multifunctional building used by some 150 scouts in the evenings and weekends. During the week the same building is used by kids in the age 5 to 12 years after there schooltime until they are pick up by there parents. During school vacations those schoolkids are the whole week in the building. As scoutinggroup we have almost no funding and to start some internet cafe we asked for old stuff. We start with LTSP back in 2002 after we installed our first LTSP server (P 800, 512 Mb) and three terminals (P90 up) The LTSP server worked also as firewall and contentfilter (porno). That setup worked very good for several months and we attached some more terminals. Our costumers (scouts and schoolkids) wanted more computers to play on so we decided to get some decent hardware for the server (P 2G, 1G Ram, raid disk) On the server we installed Suse 9.0 and LTSP 3. We locked the KDE desktop a little down with the kiosktool, so there is not to much to do harm on the system. This year we placed an extra server ( P 2G, 1G Ram, raid disk) And some more terminals. We have found that in an kids environment where they like to play flashgames (www.funnygames.nl) and java games its best to run an maximum of 6 to 8 terminals from the 2G servers before the load gets to high and things become very sluggisch. Only websurfing and do MSN the load is very minimal. My advice to everybody is get good network hardware, we use an cisco as mainswitch and some cheaper switches in the four internetcafes. Those seperated cafes have 3 to 5 terminals each.

The best advantage we have from LTSP is the opportunity to easy plug in extra computers. In the last scout event of JOTA/JOTI we were able to put in 10 extra terminals without problems or installing many computers.

In the meantime we have interested some scouts in linux and LTSP. They have now an project to learn to install en maintain an LTSP environment. See http://www.cyberscouts.nl
For more information on the Hartelgroep http://www.hartelgroep.nl

Ellsworth School System-Maine

Ltsp installs in all six Ellsworth Schools as well as Cave Hill Surry Lamoine Trenton schools in Union 92. we use thirty netvista 2200 in the linux lab and 60 terminals scattered in pods in classrooms in the High School with windows dhcp offering out for netvista and linux offering on alteernate port.We use nx for remote connections aaround the world. cliebow@ltsp.org

CEFETRR - CENTRO FEDERAL DE EDUCAÇÃO TECNOLÓGICA - RORAIMA - BRASIL - Prof. Talles Dino

Começamos a pesquisa sobre o LTSP no início do ano de 2004, nosso objetivo era conseguir economizar com investimento de novos equipamentos, visto que tinhamos bastante computadores obsoletos que seriam inutilizados em pouco tempo. Desde o início a idéia foi bem recebida, estavamos enfrentando muitos problemas com vírus, além disso, o número de equipamento disponíveis era insuficiente. Quando o primeiro servidor LTSP ficou pronto disponibilizamos 10 terminais para que os alunos pudessem conhecer o linux e acessar a Internet, foi muito gratificante, estavamos imunes a vírus e utilizando computadores antigos como se fossem novos. Hoje, temos algumas máquinas na biblioteca, o servidor LTSP esta sobre o GNU/Linux-Debian 3 R1 2.4.27. Temos planos de montar também laboratórios conectados via wireless por toda área do cefet.

For more information (in Portuguese) see: http://www.atia.cefetrr.edu.br, or send a mail to: talles_dino@click21.com.br


-- TallesDino - 11 Jan 2005

Hancock Public Schools, Hancock, MI USA

Hancock Public Schools is a small K12 School District located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We've been using LTSP and K12LTSP for a few years now. For students we've found that a combination of Pentium 133s and K12LTSP works great in the classroom. Openoffice, Firefox and the Gimp are the main applications used.

We also use LTSP as a delivery mechanism for our office staff running Win4Lin. Quite a few of our office applications are PC only. With Win4Lin and LTSP we've revitalized old hardware and created a very simple to manage and affordable thin client system.

-- ScottSherrill - 23 Feb 2005

Nuchem, New Delhi, India

My compnay, Nuchem, moved all desktops at its network to LTSP two years back and we have enjoyed the experience. Today we are supporting almost 200 desktops at 8 locations, including for four other organisations who moved to LTSP after seeing it operate seamlessly at Nuchem. All office productivity applications are run off a server for each group of about 30 desktops.

After a local magazine published our case study, we get many vistitors from different organisations and they are simply amazed at the reduction of effort & time needed to maintain and support network.

-- SudevBarar - 02 Mar 2005

Guilford Public Library - Guilford Connecticut, US

The Guilford Public Library began replacing PCs used for public access computing with LTSP driven Thin Clients in September of 2004. Their system includes a touch screen Kiosk where patrons can request use of several different types of workstations, one, for example, with a large screen monitor for people who are visually impaired. So far there are 13 workstations and 1 Kiosk on the system. The libraries initial experience lead to the installation of three more workstations and a second Kiosk, all in the Children's area of the library.

Patrons use the workstations for Internet browsing, webmail, and running the Open Office suite. They register at the Kiosk by touching the screen to select the type of workstation they want to use. They are assigned a username and password printed out on a receipt printer at the Kiosk. If a workstation of the type they have requested is available, they may log in immediately. If not, the new user name is added to a queue and given first priority for logging on to the next available station. User session time is currently set to 1 hour. 15 minutes before the session ends, a warning message is sent to the station and another 5 minutes before the end of the session, then the user is automatically logged off. If no one is waiting in the queue, users may extend their sessions in 5 minute intervals by clicking on the request button presented with the warning message.

All workstations support USB diskettes and thumb drives. 3 have CD/RW and 1 has a document scanner. The system has, so far, processed 12,573 patron registrations. It operates with virtually no library staff intervention. The next planned system extension will add printer manager services so patrons can release print jobs by passing a bar coded card through a bar code slot reader at the Kiosk. Development of this system was by Suellen Croteau and Doris Andrews of the library staff, Victor Virball of Acton Consulting, and Tom Curl of Enertex Systems. The system was implemented in the library by Open PC Solutions.

-- TomCurl - 03 Mar 2005 -- TomCurl - 16 Mar 2005

American Israeli Paper Mills, Hadera, Israel.

LTSP has been in use at AIPM (American Israeli Paper Mills) Ltd. since year 2001, beginning with version 2.91 of the software. The initial aim was to remove old VT terminals and related serial communications equipment. The first stations ran Open VMS Hebrew DEC Terminals and custom Java clients under QVWM environment (all turned now into RDP clients).

At the moment there are about 300 LTSP 4.0 workstations on the company's WAN, served by 12 Red Hat Linux servers. Most of these thin clients run in the "rdesktop" mode, mainly for office staff; the rest ( about 10 stations) are used in the "startx" mode, as FOXBORO or ABB operator stations on the shop floor.

The software customization included : - random choosing of RDP server from weighted priority list with preliminary ping check; - rejecting MS DHCP offers in dhclient.conf; - using xwud for quicker prompting between RDP connections; - adding local Hebrew fonts; - upgrading rdesktop, with keyboard changes to support LK450 scancodes and Numlock handling; - upgrading sane backends (for Canon and Avision scanners via Sane Twain, had problems with some newer scanners); - configuration script limiting options to local standards for the central Help Desk.

None of LTSP servers in the company is dedicated, all of them are providing for other needs also: samba, openswan, squid, java applications, hylafax, sendmail, antivirus gateway, cvs, MRTG, etc. Thin clients are of various hardware types, 200-1500 MHz AMD and Pentium CPUs.

-- GennadyLitvak - 27 Mar 2005

Linuxcol - Cafés Internet en Bogotá (Colombia)

Llevamos ya 4 años instalando LTSP en Cafes internet en Bogota (Colombia) con un gran exito. Creo que instalar Cafes o cibercafes en windows genera un alto costo de licenciamiento y de mantenimiento, en mi local tengo 7 maquinas corriendo Mandrake 10.2 con muy buenos resultados ( 2 cafes adicionales sobre k12ltsp, migrando a Mandrake) hemos disminuido el costo de equipos en mas de un 80% y el mantenimiento de software se realiza cada vez que se instala una nueva distribución, mientras que en las maquinas que tengo corriendo Windows es necesario hacer reinstalaciones de software cada 30 días maximo. La acogida del publico hacia Linux ha sido gradual utilizamos KDE con un tema que le da apariencia tipo windows XP, así que mas de un navegante ni se percata que esta en Linux. ha sido un camino largo el recorrido hasta hoy pero con grandes satisfacciones, Gracias a toda la comunidad y a Jim McQuillan^? por este excelente trabajo

Cafes Internet en Linux
alejandrolizcano(arroba)gmail.com

-- AlejandroLizcano - 5 Junio 2005

Meadville Public Library - Meadville, Pennsylvania, USA

We've been using LTSP since about 2000. We use it to run 8 public Internet computers. I'm presently working on a new server, and hope to add more thin clients in the future to be used as word processing stations, and may possibly convert our staff circulation computers to thin clients once we have migrated to a browser-based circulation system. Thanks to the LTSP team for creating such a great public computing solution!

-- CindyMurdock - 30 Jun 2005

Indonesian Internet Cafes

With personal internet access still very expensive for most people, Internet Cafes are becoming the main gateway to the Internet for many Indonesians.
However, lately the police has been sweeping these small businesses for illegal software. If they found any, they'll close down the business, and confiscate the equipments. Microsoft Indonesia said that they'll protect those who used legal Microsoft software, but this promise has been proved to be false so far (case: Pointers cafe, Semarang - still closed down by the cops).

This heavy-handed treatment on these small businesses made a lot of people feel scared to use proprietary software. Many has started to migrate to the free (as in freedom) alternatives. A lot of local Linux activists are working together to help realize this.

One of the solution is to use LTSP for the Internet cafe.
It's very helpful because it help push down the initial capital (no need for high-spec workstations). Also with the right distro, you can offer a similar environment to Windows - for significantly less money. And once setup on the server, it works almost straight away with all workstations.

A few tutorials (in Indonesian) can be found here:
How to: Build an Internet cafe: based on FC3 and LTSP
How to: Accessing local floppy on FC3 + LTSP
A few FC3 tips
More FC3 + LTSP tips

Latest news: I heard that Indonesian Ministry of Research & Information will soon release several Linux distros for our Internet cafes. From the description, it seems that one of that will be based on LTSP.

That's all for now. And if I may, I'd like to thank everyone who has made LTSP possible / what it is now. Your product is a godsend for many.
Thank you.

-- HarrySufehmi - 04 Jul 2005

Bornholms Frie Idraetsskole, Denmark

An LTSP implementation using one SUN with dual P4s, 3Ghz, 4G RAM. The machine is serving some +30 clients, all very old outdated PIIs and PIIIs with as low as 16Mbyte RAM. A very powerfull UPS is supporting it, keeping it running during blackouts - which occur some 2 - 3 times a year.

1Gbit main PDS cable feeding strings of 100Mbit to each client.

Version 4.1 of LTSP in use, 2.4 kernel. The server OS is plain vanilla SuSE92^? with OOo1.1.4 and the usual stuff. We used the KDE kiosk-tool to handle desktops.

See the school (160 kids) at www.bfis.dk (danish :-)) -- VernerKjaersgaard - 04 Jul 2005

Friskolen i Bramming, Denmark

An LTSP implementation using one DELL PowerEdge2800^? with dual XEONs, 2.5Ghz, 2G RAM. The machine is serving some +15 clients, all very old outdated PIIs and PIIIs with as low as 32Mbyte RAM. All cabling standard 100Mbit, no 1Gbit anywhere. Most of the client boot from floppies, using the Microsoft-make-any-netcard-look-like-a-PXE-card. This works great. Version 4.1.1 of LTSP in use, 2.4 kernel. The server OS is plain vanilla SuSE93^? with OO2.0 and the usual stuff. We used the KDE kiosk-tool to handle desktops. -- VernerKjaersgaard - 20 Jul 2005

Ambience Properties Ltd., Hyderabad, India

The organisation was faced with the dilemma of investing in IT to upgrade its facilities. Investing in M$ $oftware meant throwing away all existing hardware (some date back to 1996). The overall cost was proving to be prohibitive. Upon invitation, I created and installed LTSP on a Red Hat Linux 9 running on a Powerful Destkop machine (AMD 2000+, 1GB RAM, 40GBx2 Linux RAID). A total of 8 systems were connected to the server using D-Link 10/100 Switch. Since PXE cards are not easily available, PXE boot floppies were used.

Most vexing installation issues were related to NFS & XSession using UDP. On a HP 10Mbps hub, the clients would occasionally drop the session. Users would occasionally get locked out. Gradients & Wallpapers really slowed the display and caused huge CPU Usage spikes on the Server.

With minimum investment (10/100 Mbps Switch, Realtek 10/100Mbps cards), these issues were ironed out. At only 1/10th of the cost (of upgrading to M$), desktops that would have been otherwise sold for scrap were given a new lease of life.

-- RajibGhosh - 26 Aug 2005

Baunehoej Efterskole, Denmark

Bording School for 79 10.graders. LTSP Server Dual AMD MP2600+, 2GbECC memory, 2x36GbSCSI Raid 1, 1Gbit net. 18 Clients from 100Mhz P1 to 850Mhz AMD duron all 100Mbit connected to a 24x10/100 switch with 1Gbit uplink. Using a samba/LDAP fileserver for authorization of ltsp-server and for 10 Windows clients for teachers/office. Have used ltsp from version 2.x on RedHat^? 7/8 in 2002, now using Ltsp 4.1.1 on Gentoo.

Todo: Add 6 more clients, add freeNX for home users.

-- JesperBerth - 30 Aug 2005

-- ErkkoS - 01 Sep 2005

Lucina Hagman gymnasium, Finland

Small-ish gymnasium in middle Finland. About 150 students. After getting fed-up with M$, blue screens and HD crashes now running LTSP for a second year. 20 Acer 600/333 computers booting from floppy and 3Com PXE, Fujitsu P4/1G/2xSCSI160/100MEther server. K12LTSP 4.2=Fedora3. Freezes occasionally with heavy OpenOffice^? or GIMP load, would definitely need more RAM ang 1G Ether. Otherwise works just great. Once the ws's are booted to W98, server works as a workgroup server for educational software (unfortunately, not available for Linux) and DHCP/Firewall/Router for the class. For us the best in LTSP is centered administration and MUCH less HD:s to maintain.

Have tried to implement LocalApps but not yet successful. Running OpenOffice^? and Firefox+Java locally would be fantastic. More server memory is a must. Should update to 1G switch+cards. But it works, day in, day out. And that is what counts.

Bristol Wireless and Psand.net Mobile Cybertent, Europe

Working together on a joint project to set-up a mobile Internet café, during the summer of 2006, we have been using a 20 terminal mobile LTSP suite of 'old useless PI laptops' powered by a 'pretty decent server laptop'. Main apps ran for this have been Mozilla Firefox, but also xchat, games and education programmes as well, and even, OpenOffice^?.org. The network connexion has been provided mainly using a bi-directional parabolic antenna to connect to a satellite Internet service. We have also in one instance run of purely renewable energy (meaning batteries, solar panels and wind generators), where our total energy needs amounted to 650 watts.

Here's some links to it in action, with more of the technical details about our set-up and the results:

LTSP suite at Home Education Festival
LTSP suite as Indymedia Center in G8 protest camp

We'll put more up shortly.

-- MikeHarris - 7 Sep 2005

Zeropiu - Milano, Italy

Zeropiu is a system integrator we start to migrate some company to LTSP solution.

The last sucess story is :
- 330 client with PXE
- 4 LTSP server, 2 x Xeon 3,06GHz , 6 gb RAM ( max per server 50/55 client) HQ office
- 5 LTSP server, 1 x Xeon 3,06Ghz , 2GB RAM (max per server 20 client) / 4GB RAM (max per server 35 client) Branch Office
- Centralized File server based on GFS ( for home dir)
- Ldap for user account repository ( Gosa admin tool)
- Mono

Our most used applications are:
- FireFox 1.0
- evolution
- OpenOffice 1.3
- Hylafax ( kdesendfax)
- Acrobat Reader
- autoroute ( with wine emulation)
- Terminal Emulation
- rdesktop

All running on Fedora Core 2.
We also move the Windows domain controller to Samba (120 windows client remain), all provisioning operation are made by Gosa ( mail, windows and unix ). Many other service are now OpenSource^?:
- Fileserver ( Samba)
- Mailserver ( Postfix/Cyrus)
- FaxServer^? (Hylafax)
- Backup Server (amanda)
- DNS / DHCP ( ISC)
- System/Network Monitor ( Zabbix)

Starting this year we're going to experiment with some items:
- NX clients, for branch office
- openSSI
- load balancing (LVS)
- Lustre / OpenAFS^?
- Bacula Backup
- Xen

For more information send a mail to: manfred@zeropiu.it
-- ManfredFuruholmen - 8 Set 2005

Small Business IT Expansion - Crewe, England.

As our primary application is Photoshop (run with crossover office) we put together a nice dual CPU box with 2GB of ram to run it on. Recent business growth presented us with the problem of expanding our photoshop use to more that one workstation, however the prospect of having to buy upto 4 high end workstation wasn't exactly something we were looking forward to (As with any small business there is only so much money to go around and an almost endless list of things to spend it on).

A little more ram and LTSP has saved us a fortune in hardware as we can now run several photoshop workstations from a single box using a selection of Junk PC's as thin clients. In fact it has worked so well that we have switched all of our standard office-work orientated desktops over to LTSP clients (running from the same original high end workstation). We're up to 8 regular users, 3 of which live in Photoshop all the time (and aside from high mem usage, the machine still has plently of slack CPU time)

Its quite a shock when you realise exactly how much computing power is locked away on your desktop, and how much simpler a sys-admins life is when there is only one box to administer

-- RichardPemberton - 24 Sep 2005

Consejo de la Magistratura de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires- Buenos Aires, Argentina.

We are the Judicial Power of the Independent City of Buenos Aires, here we use 600 LTSP clients to use office applicactions and internet for more than 1000 users. It has been 2 years since we start the project and we made a lot of changes to the original LTSP to adapt the package to our needs. Our DHCP, DNS, NFS, TFTP and SAMBA servers are running on Debian and the clients connects to several Windows2003 Terminal Servers based on the username. A little list of changes that we made:

*A lot of changes to the initrd and rc.sysinit structure to don't need to add the mac address to the dhcpd.conf in the dhcp server. Only on the lts.conf, that later was migrated to mysql.

*We include the mysql client on the LTSP to be able to store mac address, hostnames (based on the mac address), username and terminal server to connect on a mysql database. This way, we can have dynamic ip and we configure the printers via hostname. And we have static users per server.

*NX machine client. We are testing to migrate everything to linux

*Custom Kernel, to reduce the boot time and adecuate everything to our hardware. We have some PII, a lot of k62, several PIII and a few Duron.

*Custom rc.localdev and rc.sysinit. To improve boot time, to reduce the memory consumption and to share the floppys, cdroms, and harddrives over the network via samba.

*Custom /etc/screen.d/rdesktop to ask the username before connect. So we can map users to servers.

*Custom samba configuration, to add a little more security, this way, no one can access a share that is not allowed to.

*Added support for dialog. To make the initial boot up more friendly.

*We make a few modifications to the swap over nfs, this way, we have thin clients with 16mb and run samba locally to share the local devices.

*Added setleds, to enable the numlock on boot time.

*A few scripts to make hardware auditory.

*A front end to manage the Mysql Database to add users or machines to the system.

Now we are planning the migration to remove the Windows2003 server from the scene and add Sound Support to the clients.

-- GuidoLorenzutti - 16 Jan 2006

Ferrocarril de Antofagasta a Bolivia

En nuestra empresa se implementó un Módulo de Alfabetización, en donde se le s enseñó computación a todos los empreados que no tenían experiencia con los computadores. La sala se implementó con un PC servidor y 10 terminales. El servidor es un Pentium IV de 2.4 GHZ con 1 GB de RAM y los terminales son equipos Pentium I de 133 MHZ. Pueden revisar más en http://www.fcab.cl/adigital

-- GermanMorales - 24 Jan 2006

Bolton TIC UK

At Bolton Technical Innovation Centre we have a 25 station LTSP setup. The client machines are small footprint commodity PCs booting via PXE. We have two dual Opteron IBM X series machines so the system really flies. Server OS is SuSE^? Linux Professionsl. KDM provides automatic logins, and desktop lockdown is ensured by the use of IceWM^? and some custom scripts which ensure applications get started with known good configurations. http://www.uktic.org/

-- PhilDriscoll - 24 Jan 2006

Call Centre On LTSP, Pune INDIA

The Implementation Cost of Windows was too high , we provided Linux Thin Client Solution with Out Bound Call Application. We have five Servers and 125 Machines running successfully for last 8 months. Customised Desktop using icewm, Firefox as local apps , Nedit and gnumeric. We replicated the same at US office. Single DHCP server with auto-DNS update. Server Specs - Pentium 4 with 2GB RAM with SCSI Interface Thin-Clients - Celeron diskless machines. Solution provided by Pro-Ex Solutions Pvt Ltd. You Can visit their site for more success stories. http://www.proex-india.com -- DineshKarnad - 25 Jan 2006

Four Seasons Heating & Air Conditioning - Chicago, Illinois

Our 2-man staff was faced with the challenge of simplifying the management of 40+ not so savvy user's PCs while incorporating a variety of programs, condensing our user data, and saving desk space over our current bulky desktops and 19" monitors. After some serious research, the best option was to replace all user PC's with 45 thin clients and build an LTSP server (Dual Opteron 246, 4GB RAM, 4x37GB 15000RPM SCSI-RAID) from scratch. The array of programs our users need to access was taken care of with OpenOffice^?, Adobe Reader, IBM's 5250 terminal emulator, and RDP access to a Windows 2003 Terminal Server for Windows only programs. With this combonation, we have been able to simplify our user logins (LDAP/AD replication, single sign-on), restrict user-installed programs (which was becoming a major issue), condense backups, and give our users access to all of their necessary programs, with better uptime than their separate desktops. The system has been rock solid on Fedora 4 running XFCE desktop for the past 6 months and is still going strong. Implementation costs were much lower than new small form factor PCs, user maintenance time has dramatically reduced, and the time we used to spend diagnosing and fixing PCs has been completely eliminated. Basically, system administration has become a minimal task. Total implemenation cost with all new equipment was under $20,000, and we have very little recurring costs, only 1 Windows server. I'm sure we have room for more features also, I haven't seen the CPU usage higher then 20% or memory over 700MB used!

-- JasonSkuby - 10 Mar 2006

Instituto Bernardino Rivadavia, Porteña, Cordoba, Argentina

Se implementó el proyecto LTSP en la red de la escuela, utilizando Debian Sarge, permitiendo recuperar el equipo "obsoleto" existente (unas 5 PCs adicionales), brindando ademas del trabajo en red a los alumnos, acceso a Internet a un bajo costo. El sistema está en producción desde agosto de 2004. Los clientes son 486, P133 hasta 233 con 16 y 32 MiB^?.

http://eureka-linux.com.ar

Cybercafe, Abidjan (CÃŽte d'ivoire)

The cybercafe uses server Intel Xeon 2.40GHz with LTSP 4.2 and 15 terminals. The applications used by the customers are firefox, OpenOffice^?, Amsn.
Amsn is used in local application for the support of the webcam.

http://www.gaspard.net/ltsp

Physicians Credit Bureau

Our medical collections agency uses LTSP to fuel 35+ employees all running Ubuntu desktops with a convenient ssh script into our data server. This technology has allowed us to replace our ancient dumb terminals and rid of us the constant problem of connecting to our server via digi boards (which carried legendary bugs). We also use the online white and yellow pages, which saves us thousands each month on 411 bills. We've been running on LTSP for over a year now and almost the entire office is switched over.

Jeep Collins Jewelrymaker, Inc. - Fredericksburg, Texas

Several years ago I asked my web hosting provider what he knew about thin clients. He pointed me to LTSP.org and a whole new world opened up.

At the time we were running DOS/Win98/Netware/fat clients. As a small business manager with a special interest in technology, I did not want to spend my days maintaining workstations. The server-centric approach just made sense. I found a basic server, intalled RH9 and started to experiment. I remember having trouble at first but the first time I saw the GDM login screen was a memorable occasion. (Similar to the feeling when I achieved access to network resources via a wireless connection across town. Think top of building...radio...laptop...login!)

I recently replaced the original server with a new/surplus HP DL145, AMD64, 2GB Ram, IDE hard drives. We usually see 10 or less users with several of these “users” being task-oriented workstations that sit idle much of the time. The IDE hard drives have never been a problem for our usage. Clients are a mix of older machines sans hard drives and newer HP thin clients. Three workstations are at a second location via the 10Mbit wireless point-to-point connection. Performance it great.

With the new server, Ubuntu replaced RH9. We continue with IceWm^? and its simple approach to managing applications and the clean presentation to users. (minimalism at it's best!) Applications include OpenOffice^?.org, Firefox, Thunderbird, SBT Accounting (via dosemu), and a few others. No sound, no local devices. Users are given what they need to get the job done. Nothing more.

LTSP makes network administration a piece of cake.

http://www.jeepcollins.com

-- ChristianCollins - 26 Jul 2006

LTSP inside OpenVZ^? on Woodcrest, Kiev, Ukraine

I've got LTSP4.2 running inside OpenVZ (2.6.16-based x86_64 kernel from ALT Linux Sisyphus, that is, our unstable). The setup currently uses separate DHCP server as it was already deployed (had to put TFTP server there too) and TS/NFS on a 4-way/4-gig Woodcrest machine (2x2 cores), employing ALT Linux 3.0 Compact as the operating environment.

The two issues were with getting NFS running there (unfs3 did it just right) and fixing /etc/screen.d/startx since it was choking when `tty` was suddenly /dev/console.

Oh, and the clients are recycled Compaq EN SFF 6450+ (PIII-500 with passive heatsink, ATI Rage IIc (or 128?) 4M; ordered with 64M RAM and no HDD, although we left FDDs and slim CDROMs in) after checking/updating the firmware, they boot off LAN and perform just fine with 17" TFTs, and silent too. They've cost us awful $65/piece, there was just nothing more basic and small at the same time.

-- MichaelShigorin - 22 Sep 2006

LTSP at SUS office in Bern, Switzerland

At the Swiss Foundation for Volunteer Nature Work (Stiftung Umwelt-Einsatz Schweiz SUS, www.umwelteinsatz.ch) we are running two LTSP systems at two locations. Both at present Version 4.2 running on Kubuntu 6.06. The Bern office has one server (3 GHz, about one GB RAM) and 3 thin clients all booting PXE. The other office as yet only has one thin client and one user direct on the server (2 GHz, 750 MB RAM). During initial testing it was actually possible to run two KDE sessions at the same time with only 256 MB RAM in the server. Getting the systems to run wasn't easy, especially adding things like local device support.

-- TheoSchmidt - 30 Oct 2006

TRIciclo in Bari, Italy

TRIciclo is a TechnoSec project to recycle old machines in schools and offices. This project uses Ubuntu and LTSP for terminal server, Edubuntu for educational scenario. We give thanks to LTSP Project for their work, our objective is Free Software Philosophy adoption in schools and professional organizations.

Last Success Stories:

• Migration of 30 old pc to Edubuntu and LTSP infrastructure in a public school. We've used a server Dell Xeon Dual-Core with 2GB of RAM and switch Zyxel Fast Ethernet with Gigabit uplink.

-- MarcoPennelli - 19 Nov 2006

Hellig Anders Skolen, Slagelse, Denmark

Two Dell PowerEdge2800^? with dual Xeon power a pile of clients running SuSE10^? and MS-Windows2003 application through RDP. 4GRAM in both servers, RAID1 SCSI disks, 1000Mbit switches with 100Mbit strains. LDA access, also in the windows programmes! Sound from al windows apps to all clients.

-- VernerKjaersgaard - 25 Nov 2006

FKI Logistex - Alameda Offices, Alameda, CA

We have been using LTSP in one distro or another for several years now. We have a Warehousing and Distribution dB application that interfaces with proprietary hardware which is installed in distribution centers throughout North America, South America, and Europe. The server application can run on HP-UX 10.x/11.x, AIX 4.x/5.x, Solaris 2.6/2.9, and Linux, but they all communicate to diskless workstations running a ltsp distro. Linux installs include Redhat v8, v9, and ES 3.x,4.x. Protocols involved: BOOTP or DHCP, TFTP, NFS, SSH, TELNET, REMSH/RSH, NTP. Each workstation is running a local application mounted over NFS. They write log files back to the server over NFS as well. They have been integrated with multiple I/O cards from ByteRunner^?.

It took a little effort to come up with a working configuration on HP-UX, AIX, and Solaris, but it has been easy to maintain, and more importantly, easy to upgrade. The staff at Diskless Workstations, and most especially Ron and Jim have been invaluable to us. We have standardized on an ETHERBOOT ROM on a Linksys 10/100 card that we source from them. However, we have also duplicated this system using PXE.

-- ElbertLai - 18 Dec 2006

Busisness Data Solutions, Cape Town, South Africa - Smart Cape Access Points

We have been using LTSP since 2002, starting with our first pilot project, the SmartCape^? Access Project (http://www.smartcape.org.za) for the City of Cape Town, which involved building an OSS Thin-Client System for Libraries using refurbished workstations. Since then we have rolled out a solution using a combination of thin-client (LTSP) and custom HP441 technology for the SmartCape^? Access Points. The access point consists of five user workstations and one Librarian workstation (thin-client).

The project was so successful that in 2003, it won an award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for Access to Learning. The project has thus expanded to the City of Durban (Thin-client), City of Port Elizabeth (Thin-client) and soon it will be rolled out in the City of Joburg.

The solution uses a product called the E-Box, of which BDS is the distributor in Africa.

-- LindsayWicomb - 01 Mar 2007

Trellis Earth Products

Trellis Earth Products just rolled out our first call center for sales of our products all powered by LTSP. We have 5 thin clients from Diskless Workstations.com that run off of our LTSP server which is a dual AMD Opteron with 4GB memory. The clients run fast and work great with our Asterisk IP-PBX. We are using the version from the K12 project which runs off of Fedora Core 6. Which was easy as installing the modified FC6 and then just plugging in the thin clients to the switch. I was just amazed to watch the first one boot and load the login and then desktop with out touching one line of config files. Truly amazing!!! Each client has a 17" View Sonic with sound board. So stop by our web site and if you call and order something you'll know we are using LTSP to record your order.

Thanks to all that have help through the mailing list and all that have work so hard to make my life as a system administrator that much easier!!

June 29 2007

Jaimie Garner
Trellis Earth Products
www.trellisearth.com

Escuela Naval - Armada Nacional - Montevideo, Uruguay

Se ha implementado en la biblioteca de nuestra escuela 3 thin clients, los equipos son Packard Bell pentium 200Mhz con 32 Mb de memoria (llegamos incluso a probar con un pentium de 75 Mhz con 12 Mb de memoria y funcionó), el servidor es un pentium 4 con 2 Gb de memoria, instalamos LTSP 4.2 sobre Fedora Core 6, y todo funciona muy bien, esperamos a medida que nos autoricen a conectar más thin clients a este servidor, felicitamos a los creadores de este proyecto!!!

Escuela Naval - Armada Nacional
Departamento de Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicaciones
esnal_detic@armada.mil.uy
-- EscuelaNaval - 07 Jul 2007

LTSP implementation in Nepal

Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (mpp.org.np) has implemented LTSP in remote schools of Nepal. MPP has developed its own localized version of Linux popularly known as NepaLinux^?. It is based on Debian and Morphix. We have been implementing LTSP in NepaLinux^?. Up to now we have successfully implemented it in 3 schools. In near future we are moving towards a huge numbers of schools and Tele-centers.

We have implemented it with Kernel 2.6, LTSP 5.0. There are about 4 to 8 computers as thin clients (128/256 RAM, 2.4 GHz, Celeron, MSI). and server consists of Intel HT 3.2 GHz and 1 GB RAM, 120GB SATA Hard-Drive, and DVD R/W. All most all of the applications could be run smoothly from thin clients. It works fine with both KDE and GNOME Desktop environment. The schools childrens, who haven't even seen Televisions got the opportunity to touch with computer and play and update themselves with ICT. I can't mention here there exhilaration for getting access to ICT they are so happy and curious for handling computers in their mother language.

Lets make LTSP a mega success in ICT.

Daya Ram Budhathoki
Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya
dayaram@mpp.org.np
-- DayaRamBudhathoki - Oct-4-2007
http://nepalinux.org

Another LTSP implementation in Nepal

Very briefly: In a Higher Secondary School in Ramkot near Pokhara is a new student lab running LTSP 5. There are 7 thin clients, one Edubuntu server hosting the LTSP services, and one Wizzy Digital communication server connecting with a CDMA telephone and hosting local email accounts and a large cache of pre-downloaded web pages (including a school edition of Wikipedia). The students and teachers are very excited to begin using this new facility.

Many thanks to all of the LTSP folks for making this possible.

Dave Wood, and the folks at Wizzy Digital (www.wizzydigital.org)

Computer science library, Universidad Mayor de San Andres, La Paz, Bolivia

The computer science library in the Universidad Mayor de San Andres (UMSA) in La Paz, Bolivia has been using FLOSS (Free/libre/open source software) to bring internet access and library services to its students. In Bolivia, universities don't provide students with free access to computers and the internet. Although a growing number of university students do have computers at home, very few have internet access at home, because it costs 8 bolivianos (US$1.13) per hour to access the internet via dialup modem and 300 Bolivianos (US$42.80) per month to pay for broadband access (16KBits per second). Due to the forced privatization of Bolivian telecomunications by the IMF, most Bolivians can't afford the internet at home. Instead, they have to go to cybercafes, which charge 2 to 3 bolivianos (US$0.27 - US$0.40) per hour.

Unfortunately, internet access in necessary for a proper education in computer science, so the library decided to set up a thin client network to provide students access to the internet. In January 2008, the library installed a server running Debian 4.0 and LTSP 4.2 and 10 thin clients for the students. The thin clients were old Pentium Is with 16 MB RAM, which had been abandoned in an old storeroom and the server was a Pentium D with 1 GB RAM which was hardly being used. In order to convert the old Pentium Is to thin clients, new optical mice, 100Mbit/s ethernet cards and USB 2.0 addin cards were installed, costing roughly $21 per machine. In addition, a two 8 port 10/100Mbit/s switches and 100m of Cat5 cable were bought to connect the server to the thin clients.

Now the students can surf the internet, do word processing, and search in the library catalogue and use our electronic library which has over 1000 ebooks about computer science. The project was designed to demonstrate that old equipment can be recuperated using FLOSS, which is important in an impoverished country like Bolivia where few have money to import expensive computer equipment every 3 or 4 years. The students have been impressed by the relative speed of the system. Despite being 15 years old, the Pentium I thin clients respond like modern computers since all the processing is handled by the server. Several of the students have commented to me that the GNOME interface in Debian is easy to use and several have asked for the CDs to install Debian at home.

The computer science library can only offer a limited selection of physical books and hasn't purchased more than 50 books in the last 4 years, despite an enrolment of roughly 3,500 students in the school of computer science. With internet access and ebooks, the computer science library can keep abreast of the state of the art in the field. The only drawback is that most of the ebooks about computer science are only available in English, which can be difficult to read in a Spanish speaking country.

Amos Batto, Cofounder of www.runasimipi.org

Other related pages

K12LTSP success stories (K12LTSP is based off of LTSP)

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Please edit this page, and add your story.

Thanks,
Jim McQuillan
jam@Ltsp.org