Edubuntu update - still rocking

So all 4 of my kids spent the weekend on and off the computers in the basement.  They played games, looked up cheat codes for their console games, sent emails, and wrote a research paper on Langston Hughes.  For those of you who haven't read my last couple of posts, the only thing remarkable about this is that 1 one of the PCs is an Edubuntu server (actually an old P4 tower) and 3 are thin clients accessing the server.  The three thin clients consist of 2 old P3's and one is an actual HP thin client.  Not surprisingly, Langston Hughes doesn't care if he's being written about on Windows or Edubuntu.

First things first, this whole setup works.  Everyone was able to be online, play some games and word process without difficulty, even simultaneously.  The server itself seemed to have a few issues running Gnome (gnome daemon errors), so I installed KDE with no difficulties.  My kids decided pretty quickly that they liked KDE better anyway, so they switched on their own logins.  While Edubuntu comes preloaded with Gnome, it doesn't care which desktop environment you use any more than Langston Hughes cares about your OS.

This is probably one of the cooler features of Edubuntu.  It requires virtually no configuration to connect thin clients and manage multiple user accounts, yet allows for a high degree of customization.  I should probably try installing the Xfce desktop to see if I can address some of the performance issues we encountered this weekend.

Which of course leads me to the few niggles I have regarding this setup.  To be honest, they're not really niggles as much as they are caveats.  The PC I'm using as a server is decidedly underpowered and low on RAM to be taking on terminal server duties.  2GB RAM and a dual-core processor would make this a heck of a lot snappier.  My oldest used the server as his primary machine and had no performance problems to speak of, but as his brothers logged on, the thin clients bogged down a bit, especially where Internet bandwidth or graphics processing was concerned.  Tuxkart (a simple MarioKart clone) performed acceptably on the server but wasn't much fun on the thin clients.

Word processing, creating presentations, chat, email, etc., were all fine, however, if a bit slow to launch.  Thus, the caveat to keep in mind is that one can't expect to take just any PC, install Edubuntu, and expect to power 3-4 other machines.  While it will probably work, performance will be fairly frustrating, especially if tasks are anything more than the most basic.  On the other hand, getting 2-3 computers for the price of one decent modern PC is a pretty good deal and offers a lot of manageability.  As many users have reported, malware also becomes basically a nonissue.

The people who make Edubuntu actually expect this to be run on a real server-class machine as a gateway for an entire classroom lab.  While there is a lot of flexibility here and serious possibilities for use at smaller (and I expect larger) scales, our expectations should be realistic.  Here are the hardware recommendations from freesoftwaremagazine.com:

• 512MB RAM for the idling system with all of its services
• 50MB per client to hold user data and the first copy of common applications
• 100MHz of 32 bit processing power or about 75MHz of 64 bit power per client. .
• A gigabit NIC for the private LAN (100 megabit is OK for small LANs with patient users, random boots or client always on)
• 10/100 baseT NIC for the ISP

So what's the verdict?  Seat of the pants testing suggests that performance of the thin client network isn't quite on par with Microsoft Terminal Services (I have an identical test server running Windows Server 2003) or Citrix systems.  However, for the majority of home, school, and SOHO applications, Edubuntu represents an incredible value and brilliantly easy setup.  Performance issues aside, setup is quite a ways ahead of that offered by Microsoft and Citrix and certainly more accessible for the average user.  This is a really mature release and I can't wait to see what is offered by the 7.10 release slated for this fall.