Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2009 11:10:01 -0400 From: Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@msu.edu> To: Chris <eagletree@hughes.net> Cc: FreeBSD-Questions Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: FreeBSD for a high school class? (long) Message-ID: <20090709151000.GF25876@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> In-Reply-To: <368E57AC-8366-46EA-BE1A-5EBB07B64EDC@hughes.net> References: <368E57AC-8366-46EA-BE1A-5EBB07B64EDC@hughes.net>
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On Thu, Jul 09, 2009 at 07:58:21AM -0700, Chris wrote: -> Sorry for the OT-ness of this. I only work with FreeBSD for servers. -> Have used it as the sole systems for a business since the late 1900s. -> Twice I've put up X-Windows machines but we never bothered to -> use them for one reason or another. Now my son's school is short -> computers for a High School HTML class I'm going to help teach -> this fall. The official teacher is excited about FreeBSD since we can -> use old equipment that is donated. -> -> There are two issues. We will not get enough FreeBSD systems up -> to cover all kids in the class. Some will have to use the 10.4/3 OS-X -> G3s we already have. For the remainder of systems, I've told them -> I need a minimum 256GB Ram, 500+Mhz, ~10GB hard drive. I will -> put Apache on both types of boxes so they have a testing platform, -> hope to put firefox on each so they have a consistent browser. The -> confusing thing will be Finder and Textedit, versus whatever I use for -> a window manager on the FreeBSD systems. -> -> The two questions are: -> -> 1. Taking the specs into account, what is the window manager that -> will provide the closest match to the Apple desktop for mouse ops, -> browsing files/directories, and editing text files. I suppose I should -> add running Firefox (or a reasonable similar browser that will -> render HTML and execute Javascript identically). -> -> I don't mean cosmetically, just enough that there isn't too much -> needing to teach a window manager. Finder is relatively invisible -> from a teaching standpoint as is Textedit, Firefox is going to be -> reasonably standard (this is going to teach HTML standards, not -> how to use windowed drag and drop page generation products, -> they will be using a text editor and working with raw HTML, CSS -> and JavaScript). But what I don't want to be doing is having some -> learning vi (even though if this were an advanced class, that is -> precisely what I'd expect ;-)), while others are using textedit. -> The course is HTML. Mouse button operations should be close, -> a window that gives a simple file directory and a text editor that -> doesn't require learning a character command set would be the -> target. -> -> 2. Am I too lean on the specs for the free AMD/Intel boxes we -> are requesting parents cough up? Well, I don't think that you need 256 GB of ram. Probably less than 1 GB, in fact maybe 256 MB will be plenty. 10 GB of hard disk might be a little tight, but if you aren't doing databases and making big permanent sites, but only just small teaching web pages, then you should get by. ////jerry -> -> The district sadly is being forced to go to windows by the -> state, and now only has these old antique Macs -> free and has no Intel/AMD boxes. These will all come from -> parents of the program and leverage the fact that people -> like to replace perfectly good boxes because of spyware on -> windows. I personally still have boxes with less than 100GB -> RAM and sub-500 mhz processors running 6.x (and I think 7.0) -> but I use those as firewalls, I've never used a window manager -> so perhaps my view of FreeBSDs efficiency is optimistic. Are -> the specs too low for *some* X environment? -> -> Constraint: I already broached the subject of putting FreeBSD -> on the G3s using the PowerPC version. Unfortunately, the 6 -> Apples are used by another class on OS-X. -> _______________________________________________ -> freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list -> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions -> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
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