What are "Thin Clients"? / What is LTSP? / What is Edubutu?

Since 1998 one of my colleagues at Seneca College, John Selmys, experimented with a technique to cost-effectively connect old "junky" computers that did not have a hard disk drive to a more powerful computer server. When that computer department moved in 2005, it was discovered that those "ancient" machines were still being used by students to work on their assignments / perform homework...

The technology was developped by Jim MacQuillan, and the project is called LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project) the website is ltsp.org

Those workstations are referred to as diskless-clients or "thin-clients" since most of the processing is performed by the server, and routine tasks (like accepting input from mouse & keyboard and displaying graphics on monitor) are performed just in the thin client's internal memory (RAM). Seneca College, over the past 6-7 years have supported Seneca staff to start projects to donate, install, and support several high-schools in the Toronto area that are in need of affordable networking solutions. I was one of the people involved in this project. I also have volunteered to help set up a Linux lab for a church in Orangeville, Ontario...

Here are some pictures of the Linux Computer Labs we helped to set up:

Highschools:

• [ ] Emery Collegiate Secondary School (Toronto, ON)
• [ ] Parkdale Collegiate Institute (Toronto, ON)
• [ ] George S. Henry Secondary School (Toronto, ON)

Churches:

• [ ] Westminster United Church (Orangeville, ON)