There are a variety of input methods for Japanese, Chinese and other characters. Alas, most documentation is in Japanese (I live here). The input method on linux is a lot different from the one in Windows. I am sure that Mr. Sato from next door will have trouble coping.
For the interface, you should make one user per language. Each user account profile should be set to the language in question, and then you just have to secure it so that it gets written back when people log out.
Don't forget to put html help and explanation as links on the desktop!
A thing that kept me from causing to mage damage during my University days, was the network boot. You can intialise all workstatons over the network, if the NIC has a bootrom. You then have the option of mounting only a small swap partition locally, or taking out the hdd completely.
To restore the user profiles I am sure many of the other comments here are useful.
In an enterprise I would definetly use Symantec Ghost. This is mainly used to deploying Windows workstations, but also supports ext2 file system natively and has some post configure options.
The main advantage is that by using multicast you can install up to 100 PCs within 20 minutes with ALL aps!!!
Of course you could also do it manually using linux tools (definetly possible), but I am not aware of a toll that is optimised for speed like ghost, and can multicast. If it exists I would be highly interested.
I remember reading an article in Germany's C'T magazine when the idea of subscription/rental software first came up in the context of Microsoft.
Their Legal expert explained that it would be difficult for Microsoft to start this kind of business in Germany, because the terms and conditions would dramatically change aginst Microsoft. Apparently according to German law, in case of rental contracts, the lendor has the responsibility to maintain the object of renting in working conditions at own cost!
Software is never flawless but from this alone there is no legal responsibility to fix all problems, and owners can be expected to share some of the burden (e.g. download a patch).
However in case of rental, any such flaw would have to be fixed by MS itself, without cost for the contract partner. (i.e. downloads would cause cost for the user).
The author's conclusion was, that because of this legal background, it would be unlikely for MS to start lending their software.
As a last thought, it should be noted that in the past many US companies offered products in Europe with the original Contract conditions as in the US. However, most of these were in fact not legal in Germany, so that consumers had the right to cancel their contracts despite special clauses forbidding this. (eg. AOL, Microsoft OEM,...).
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There are a variety of input methods for Japanese, Chinese and other characters. Alas, most documentation is in Japanese (I live here). The input method on linux is a lot different from the one in Windows. I am sure that Mr. Sato from next door will have trouble coping.
For the interface, you should make one user per language. Each user account profile should be set to the language in question, and then you just have to secure it so that it gets written back when people log out.
Don't forget to put html help and explanation as links on the desktop!
A thing that kept me from causing to mage damage during my University days, was the network boot. You can intialise all workstatons over the network, if the NIC has a bootrom. You then have the option of mounting only a small swap partition locally, or taking out the hdd completely.
To restore the user profiles I am sure many of the other comments here are useful.
In an enterprise I would definetly use Symantec Ghost. This is mainly used to deploying Windows workstations, but also supports ext2 file system natively and has some post configure options.
The main advantage is that by using multicast you can install up to 100 PCs within 20 minutes with ALL aps!!!
Of course you could also do it manually using linux tools (definetly possible), but I am not aware of a toll that is optimised for speed like ghost, and can multicast. If it exists I would be highly interested.
Their Legal expert explained that it would be difficult for Microsoft to start this kind of business in Germany, because the terms and conditions would dramatically change aginst Microsoft. Apparently according to German law, in case of rental contracts, the lendor has the responsibility to maintain the object of renting in working conditions at own cost!
Software is never flawless but from this alone there is no legal responsibility to fix all problems, and owners can be expected to share some of the burden (e.g. download a patch).
However in case of rental, any such flaw would have to be fixed by MS itself, without cost for the contract partner. (i.e. downloads would cause cost for the user).
The author's conclusion was, that because of this legal background, it would be unlikely for MS to start lending their software.
As a last thought, it should be noted that in the past many US companies offered products in Europe with the original Contract conditions as in the US. However, most of these were in fact not legal in Germany, so that consumers had the right to cancel their contracts despite special clauses forbidding this. (eg. AOL, Microsoft OEM, ...).