[wplug] Starting From Scratch

Zach netrek at gmail.com
Sat Apr 21 01:22:47 EDT 2007


On 4/20/07, Michael H. Semcheski <mhsemcheski at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.

Why not run Open AFS? You would get the benefits of improved security
and true distributed collaboration.

Zach


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