[Glastonbury] debian@stdunstans (was Just a little idea)

[steve]

Martin Wheeler wrote:

> On Sat, 6 Nov 2004, steve wrote:
>
>>> When you've done that one, get Steve to move the school from 
>>> Mandrake :)
>>>
>> please outline what advantage this would have for the school and i 
>> will consider it.
>
>
> Instant reply : the other evening, we could all have done 'apt-get 
> install blender' -- and five minutes later been using the very latest 
> version on the classroom machines.
> As it was, we didn't have it on the desktops.
>
> It really is as simple as that, Steve.
>
> Cheers,

With Mandrake you can install via urpmi. As we are maintained by a third 
party I do not have root access on the servers but have to request any 
install or support needed. If I had root access I could have installed 
it myself just as easily with urpmi of from the install tarball. I 
however do agree that "apt-get" is undoubtedly the best way to install 
applications which is dependant on Debian as the distro.
Currently the Network is remotely managed by fensystems.co.uk.
We pay about £1500 p.a. for this.
They use Mandrake 10.0 official edition along with their own scripting 
using Perl to maintain the Network.
I am always looking to reduce the cost of running the Network as well as 
keeping a stable system.
As you know we have a mixture of thin-client, dual boot and mid client 
machines and have Linux, Windows and Apple OSX in use on the Network.
If the group can help me migrate and gain more autonomy on maintaining 
the Network then I am willing to switch to Debian.
I just need to feel that I know what I am doing. With a bit of "hand 
holding" I am confident it can be done.

A major switch like this would have to take place over the summer 
holiday 2005 as we have had enough disruption to the network as it is.
I will download Debian again and install it on a spare partition in the 
meantime and compare it to Mandrake.

Cheers