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Good, Portable "Virtual" Linux Distro?
Prof. Nix writes "I have been given the opportunity to redesign the Linux course for the community college I work for. This course will be taking students from the 'What's Lee-nux?' stage to (hopefully) Linux+ Certifiable in about three to four months. However, one issue I haven't solved is finding a semi-stable, highly portable, and readily accessible platform the students may pound on, and have root access, independently of their peers. The powers-that-be have already vetoed any sort of server environment accessible from off campus. We've already tried live USB drives, but we ran into many issues with non-supported hardware on students' home computers. So I'm left with the idea of virtual machines run from flash drives. My ultimate goal is to have some sort of portable system that students can use with equal ease on lab systems and personal laptops — regardless of hardware. Preferably this system would be installable on a 4GB flash drive and run an Ubuntu- or Fedora-derived OS. So I ask the people who have been in the trenches a lot longer than I — what distros should I look at?"
I run an instance of XP (Ubuntu host) from an SD card no problem. It shouldn't matter what OS the image is, it should run fine.
Of course, you need to make sure that everyone has a thumb drive of sufficient size.
You can't even buy drives too small for this anymore.
The post is pretty much standard trolling, but have the moderators gone on crack too? That's like say "Let's learn to drive a car. Let's start by assembling the engine..." and this is less of a problem in the workforce than on a collection of random computers. Every serious IT department runs recommended configurations of hardware and software, you don't just throw parts together, slap an OS on it and hope it works. Some hardware works flawlessly under Linux, others is a paperweight with every variation in between. If you want to run Linux you get hardware that runs Linux and it's not that hard to find, it's more that some brands support open source and others don't. Running it on random hardware is only done by people who want Linux to fail so they can mock it or those that really want the pain of dark magic command-fu or a nasty assignment in C. I really would like to see it as one of the assigned tasks though - run Linux natively from a LiveCD and run through basic checks on what works and what doesn't. That could be rather helpful information to someone trying to find a Linux friendly computer and Linux friendly accessories.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
I just finished an Intro to Linux course at my school. The professor urged everyone to find hardware to run it on. Repartition your desktop, buy a cheap desktop or laptop. Whatever. He did discouraged the use of VM's but I don't think that stopped a couple people from using them. He taught the class using Fedora 11, but we were free to run Ubuntu, Fedora 12, RHEL, or anything else, as long as we could complete the comparable tasks... I thought this was a perfectly acceptable approach since the majority of people taking teh class are pursuing a B.S. in Information Technbology. I don't believe you should be tightly controlling the environment. Let things break; that's how people learn.
Needless to say there were people who had video or sound problems; they were helped to understand the problem and resolve it; and I think those of us that paid attn all learned something, rather than sitting in a sanitized environment where you only get the regurgitated syllabus
Given current trends toward cloud computing I bet it will soon be possible for students who are just starting out with Linux to never once have to run it outside of a virtual environment. Unless of course troubleshooting hardware is part of their job description. For most, it probably won't be.
The problem with the original post is that he is asking for a distro recommendation when he should have asked for VM software. Common sense would dictate that you just use whatever distro is being taught in the class and pick a virtualization platform that handles it well.
Let's be serious about this here: download Portable Virtualbox, install it on a thumb drive, install whatever distro makes sense for the class (given A+, probably CentOS, Fedora, Debian, or Ubuntu) on the drive's VBox, and dd is your friend. Finished. Anyone who hoses the VM can get a fresh load.
Put identity in the browser.
Grab a copy of Geexbox if all you want is a linux media player. Boot it, remove it, and it plays almost everything you can throw at it. It may be a DMCA violation in your local as it does play DVD's without the DVD consortium's blessing or license. The only downside is it is keyboard navigation. The mouse is a paperweight in the program.
http://geexbox.org/en/index.html
The truth shall set you free!
And then you come back to what sconeu was replying to. The point that if the home computers can't run linux off a USB stick, they're probably going to struggle to run a virtualized system.
The solution is simple. Give the students USB sticks with a bootable linux distribution installed. Those that can run it from home can do so. Those that can't can go out and pay $300 for a computer that can or use the school's computers.
Here's a link to the "lernstick" - this is what is actively being used in schools here (Switzerland) with an English description at: http://www.imedias.ch/lernstick/lernstick_en and downloadable at: http://www.imedias.ch/dateien/lernstick-testversion/
It's based on Debian and meant to be used in schools and at home; There even is a boot-cd for those olden machines that cannot boot off USB.
Additionally they have a stripped down version (lernstick pruefungsumgebung) designed to be used for exams (No Internet).
[[ iMedias is not a company but the name of an institute of the "Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz". The institutes charter is to support schools in using IT for educational purposes. I'm not affiliated with them, but happen to now some people there;-) ]]
As an anonymous coward pen-named ThoDin (thodyn at gmail), I have a plethora of private experience (at least 15yrs.) installing and re-installing and multiple installs/boot systems on a wide variety of end user and private sector hardware ranging from the proprietary AST x86 machines to the most recent to my portfolio, the ASUS eee SeaShell w/ intel Atom core. ---(bad grammar, i know)--- My reasoning for the installs varied from "...sound works but, joystick doesn't - time to try something else..." al the way to "...how many different OS's did they say could work on one machine? Betcha I can do twice that!". OS's tried also range from my very first install of any type of NON-MS system, Slackware. then there was one of the smallest and simplest I've tried, BE-OS, It was a 30-45 min install, 3 min. boot, and BLAMMO - dial-up and/or broadband internet was up (early to mid 90s). The one that continues to keep me amazed though, because of it's abundance and variety of software, as well as it's ability to operate (almost) flawlessly on so many different PCs that I've visited, used, and/or owned, was a live cd called KNOPPIX from knopper.org (DVD and CD versions). I'm sure everyone familiar with *nix's "31 flavors" has heard of this, but for those who haven't; it a derivative of debian linux that can be run solely from the cd with no touching of the other drive devices or, installed as a minimal image running from an HD or other partition source OR, completely installed as a main, alternate, or solo OS. Although, your schools policies may potentially conflict with some of the installed software, a listed txt of "stock" software is there along with the instructions on how to modify the disk's installed software to suite your needs. Depending on your skill level and experience with *nixes, even this process should be fairly easy at minimal time consumption. All of the other mentioned by the posters (at a glance) appear valid for a variety of reasons, but if II've understood correctly, a varied skill level AND hardware is the prime issue. That being the, I mention KNOPPIX. Good luck on your choice. -Dave
But there has to be a line between getting stuff done and experimenting. if I have a deadline - I need to get stuff done, so yea I'll pick the pretty buttons.
It's called barrier to entry. If people can't even get started then they are much more likely to give up. With this at least people can get started and have more of a chance of learning more.
People have a tendency to learn more from success than from failure. Don't get me wrong, failing can be important, but if it's not coupled with some success, then you're going to lose your students.
So says the man who has never had to "train" those who don't know. The dude is trying to train those without knowledge to a better way, Linux that is, and your complaining because someone else offered a "simpler solution". When teaching, as anyone who has had to teach those without knowledge of the subject knows, you make it as simple as possible then move forward. Since his class is NOT about how to create vmware sessions I think he's going about it the right way. Take your hate for all those you support back to your cube and suck it up.