I don't think that I explained what Karoshi is very well, so am I
re-posting an explanation I have just sent to the Edubuntu mailing
list, sorry if anyone is on both and sees this as a double-post...also
thanks for all the ideas and thoughts, I am still working on the
website, so hopefully it will start to make more sense soon.
ok, here goes:
In the UK the majority of schools run a system called RM Community
Connect 3 or CC3 (www.rm.com), CC3 is a piece of software that runs on
top of a fully installed Microsoft Windows server, which at the moment
I think they are pushing Server 03. CC3 allows school administrators to
do things such as add users, create windows profiles, change passwords,
and the majority of everyday network managing things that schools need.
Now if you where a Windows sys-admin you could do all that without
another layer but in schools technicians are paid a lot less than there
business counterparts and quite often are the teacher also, so they
need this layer to be able to run a working network.
Before we started Karoshi we would put Linux in schools and as soon as
we left they would change back to windows, we decided that what Linux
needed was an 'RM CC3' so that teachers in school wouldn't have to
worry about consoles, tar files and Linux configuration.
So we started the project with that idea in mind, we made it as easy as
possible, for example using KDE over Gnome (as it's similar to XP-ish
style), we have taken away all need of knowledge of Linux, for example
on the web server we install the school Moodle, (we call it the online
classroom to make things easier) so first when you put the karoshi cd
in it configures your web server for you installing all necessary
packages to run a web page. (This is the same for all servers the PDC
for example will install all the needed software for it to become a
PDC) Once the server is 'setup' it will ask you if you want to install
for example the online classroom. If you say yes, it will copy the
files to the correct place, populate the database and most obviously
make sure you have the correct software installed and if not install
it. Once this is done you get some nice icons on the desktop so that
you can 'manage' the server, icons can be anything from a link to the
admin page of Moodle, to a link that activates your wake on LAN in a
specified computer room.
Once we had all the features that RM CC3 provide we decided to move on
and really go full force with Open Source, so started to provide
features such as a help desk (using help centre live), web-based email
(using squirrelmail) and more, all was available to schools just by a
single click of a button, basically we have had a full server setup
installed by trainee teachers up and running within a day...including
the installation of Linux, something none of them had done before.
So maybe a simple way of putting it is this, Karoshi is a set of
scripts with nice GUI front end that allows non-experienced
administrators to install, configure and run a Linux network without
getting in to deep.
Let me know if you have anymore questions, I may of wandered off during
that and I have a funny feeling that I still may not of explained it
enough!