Hey there,
I figured I'd chime is as I work at a media production company that does work almost exclusively for museums and visitor's centers. We typically don't use Linux because as support goes, it has less hardware support than windows does for different types of touchscreens, hardware devices, etc. Not to say that it wouldn't work with all your stuff, but a thought. Also, it's much less familiar to museum staff and other folks who might be servicing these kiosks and troubleshooting. If the staff can't figure something out, then you've got an issue and you'll the dreaded "Out of Order" sign. There are a few notes on that here. http://backroom.bostonproductions.com/?p=57
In terms of applications, you could of course use Flash by using FlashDevelop and the Flex compiler. I am not sure if you need a streaming server if you've got a good pipeline to feed the stuff to the kiosks. If you are going to use Flash, rather than run Firefox in kiosk mode, I'd recommend doing it in Adobe AIR. It can compile for Linux and runs as an executable. SO, when it comes to implementing some hardware acceleration and other code, it will run much better as it's own application, rather than within a web browser. Since this is what I do, I feel like I could write about it all day, but it sounds like a great challenge - I'm Jealous! If you want to check out some other info on technology that may be specific to museums, there's some good stuff on http://backroom.bostonproductions.com/
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Hey there, I figured I'd chime is as I work at a media production company that does work almost exclusively for museums and visitor's centers. We typically don't use Linux because as support goes, it has less hardware support than windows does for different types of touchscreens, hardware devices, etc. Not to say that it wouldn't work with all your stuff, but a thought. Also, it's much less familiar to museum staff and other folks who might be servicing these kiosks and troubleshooting. If the staff can't figure something out, then you've got an issue and you'll the dreaded "Out of Order" sign. There are a few notes on that here. http://backroom.bostonproductions.com/?p=57 In terms of applications, you could of course use Flash by using FlashDevelop and the Flex compiler. I am not sure if you need a streaming server if you've got a good pipeline to feed the stuff to the kiosks. If you are going to use Flash, rather than run Firefox in kiosk mode, I'd recommend doing it in Adobe AIR. It can compile for Linux and runs as an executable. SO, when it comes to implementing some hardware acceleration and other code, it will run much better as it's own application, rather than within a web browser. Since this is what I do, I feel like I could write about it all day, but it sounds like a great challenge - I'm Jealous! If you want to check out some other info on technology that may be specific to museums, there's some good stuff on http://backroom.bostonproductions.com/