tlug: X log files

[Frank Bennett <bennett@example.com>]

Following the principle that any project that interferes with my lunch hour
deserves a name, I'm dubbing the netbootable Xterm configuration I'm working
on as the "Nagoterm".  After succeeding this weekend to boot through the
network cards used in the faculty here, I've been able to begin the process
of configuring X displays and tangling with various problems of network
architecture and user interface.

I will be travelling to London for a month later this week; I should have
something set up to stick in the archive by mid-Summer.  Meanwhile, the
monniker will save me the effort of typing this sort of stuff to the list in
future:

"Nagoterm is a pre-packaged Linux filesystem and kernel image that can be
loaded to workstations across a network.  Out of the box, it provides only a
Web browser and IMAP or POP3 mail access, with provision for display and
input of Japanese text as well as English.  Supplemented by a Japanese
Applixware installation, it can be used to provide a consistent,
user-friendly and robust bilingual workstation configuration to all
terminals in an institution.

"I put this package together for use in the Faculty of Law at Nagoya
University, as a means of reducing the amount of time spent installing and
maintaining Microsoft (TM) operating systems on open access machines.  In an
educational institution, the bulk of student computing needs can be
satisfied by supplying a few basic facilities in high volume.  Because a
screen/keyboard setup is by nature a single-user interface, the bottom line
is that, whatever they happen to be wired into, you need lots of these items
scattered around to keep things moving forward.  And the key to supplying
lots of units of something is to reduce the marginal cost of supplying
_additional_ units.

"Think back to the old days (or dig out those old manuals your father passed
on to you).  Remember the VT100?  The beauty of the VT100 is the beauty of
DOS; if it is kicked off in the middle of a session, the chances are pretty
good that the filesystem will survive the shock, and be intact when the
system is accessed on the next occasion.

"This is the kind of bombproof hardiness that is required in providing
student computing services.  Unfortunately, the current OS of choice for
open-access provision in Japan (Microsoft Windows of one stripe or another)
is not terminal software in this old-fashioned sense.  A PC running Windows
is a workstation; it combines a smooth user interface with a system
architecture that cannot tolerate mid-session shutdown.  In short, these
systems are fragile, and by nature ill-suited to mass provision.

"Linux by itself is similarly intolerant of mid-session shutdown.  But unlike
Windows, it _can_ provide a solution to this problem because it can be
provided to workstations across a network, from a central server.  If the
root filesystem of these terminals is also mounted across the network, the
system administrator can control access to critical parts of the filesystem,
minimizing the possibility of downtime caused by incidental damage of the
kind referred to above.

"Configuring one such terminal is more time-consuming than setting up a
Microsoft workstation.  However, the _marginal_ _cost_ of cloning the system
to additional terminals is miniscule.  Add to this the downtime and
maintenance time saved due to the greater robustness of the Xterm
architecture, and you have a solution that should be popular with students
and staff alike.

"Because the Nagoterm boots without reference to the locally installed OS, it
is not necessary to lobby for the displacement of other systems before it is
introduced; it can be offered as an additional option, which will prove
popular only if it does, in fact, outperform the alternatives.

"The Nagoterm archive, which is provided for free and without support, is
available at <TLUG archive address will go here>."


Cheers,
Frank B
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