[clug] Windows live CD

[Tony and Robyn Lewis]

Mike J wrote:
> I work in a school environment (windows). We have special labs where 
> students bring in their own laptops and use them at school, we want to 
> have our own moe (managed operating env). But the idea at the moment 
> is to image the laptops with seperate partitions for the moe and their 
> home oe.
> I like the idea but it would be time consuming and i think it could be 
> done some other way.
>
> The way i see it happening in my head is.....
> Insert linux live dvd (no user interaction)
> Auto start windows XP vmware image or session or something else?
> Student logs into domain
> Student runs XP and uses apps like office, usb key, network drives

Not a bad idea.  I wonder if this will run foul of Windows licensing, 
though, or force each student to purchase a second Windows XP?

VMware Server has a nice server / client architecture - you could have a 
few chunky servers running your MOE as a handful of XP VMs on each 
server.  Each student has the VMware client software.  When they're on 
their LAN, they can fire up the client and attach to the MOE.  You could 
make the VMs non-persistent, so once someone logs off (and reboots) 
changes are reset.

On the down side, you have to allow potentially hostile computers on 
your network, so they can run the VM client.  Fix this by having your 
live CD with the *client* software on it only.

The licensing problem becomes yours, too, not your students'

Or would Terminal Services suit?

Just ramblings - I'm now Windows-savvy enough to really know what I'm on 
about.

Tony