Re: [Fsfe-uk] Intro and a request for information

[Chris Lale]

Hello Simon.

On Tue, 2004-11-09 at 19:52, Simon wrote:
>  The school is using RM for the network, and I want to
> install any Linux distro as long as the kids (aged about 14 - 16) can
> get along with it. But I need some cds to get started.

My preference would be for something based on Debian
(http://www.debian.org/). It is free software (as in freedom and as in
price) - a good ethic to expose young people to. It is also very robust
and easy to maintain.

I used to run an RM network. Unless things have changed, I don't expect
that you will be allowed to run Linux over the network. Perhaps you
could install Linux on each workstation hard drive, making it dual-boot.
Perhaps that is not allowed either!

If your workstations have CD drives, you could use live CD's. There are
several Debian-based live distros: Knoppix (http://www.knoppix.com/) is
KDE-based, Gnoppix (http://www.gnoppix.org) is Gnome-based as is Morphix
(http://www.morphix.org). A great advantage of this route is that your
students can legally take the CD home and use it on their own computer,
copy it, distribute it to friends, etc.

Just download the iso image(s) from the website(s) using your school's
broadband connection, and burn onto CD. 

If you download the full Debian distro, the testing version (Sarge) runs
to 13 CDs. A better idea in this case might be to install Debian to
workstations directly over the network using your broadband connection.

Have fun!

Chris.
-- 
Chris Lale <address@hidden>