[wplug] Starting From Scratch

[Michael H. Semcheski]

Hello,

Over the next couple of months, I'm helping a new researcher set up his
first lab, computer wise.  He is starting almost totally from scratch.  All
he has is a PowerBook.

He's coming from a Linux / Fedora environment, and he wants to stay away
from Windows.  We've got money, but not an unlimited budget.

In six months, there should be about 8 scientists working in this lab.  We
don't know who they all are yet, let alone whether they have experience with
Linux.  But, we expect them to adapt as long as the learning curve is
reasonable.

I think the conventional thinking is to get one beefy box, and use it as a
server.  The fixed workstations would mount their home directories from it
via NFS.  Each workstation would be almost identical.  It shouldn't make a
difference if someone logs into one or another, they should get the same
home directory.

That's about as far as I've been able to think it through.  I'm guessing I
would use Ubuntu, but its more a matter of thats what I use at home.

I've often thought 'boy, if we were starting from scratch, I would make sure
we never did this, and ...'

I'd like to hear what you would do in this situation.
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