Arch in schools

Ryujin · 2007-04-26 05:07:01

Or rather my school, Here at SUU we are looking a deploying a lot of new Linux systems and are considering taking snapshots of Arch and using them on campus computers, the demand for linux has been skyrocketing, not only with the students but also in local industry!

The only problem with Arch is the codec issue, can anyone tell me which packages I need to strip out of the snapshop to make us legal in the US? I know of a few:
libdvdcss
codecs
emovix-codecs

Are there any more?

Thanks!

gbrunoro · 2007-04-26 14:42:56

I'm not saying anything bad about arch (It's the best distro out there), but don't you think that Ubuntu or SuSE would fit with less trouble configurating it for educational uses?
But responding to your question, try looking up Ubuntu's out-of-the-box installed codecs, they are perfectly legal.

skottish · 2007-04-26 16:11:39

You may want to take a look at what codecs in the 'codecs' package are illegal and strip them. Most of the codecs have been reverse engineered by the FFMPEG project, and probably aren't in question any longer. If I'm correct, you can model the codecs package after what is in the 64 bit codecs package.

Ryujin · 2007-04-27 03:37:34

The plan would be to set up an Arch automated install specificly configured for the educational environment using larch scripts and modifying the installer to be completely automatic, then administarttion would be handled synchronously through clusterit, also we plan on installing lamMPI and enabling the systems to add themselves to a large cluster when users are not logged in, therfore maximizing the computer resources of the college and generating research revenue.

Or at least thats the plan, we have similar plans for Ubuntu, CentOS, SuSE and Fedora, but the more we look at it Arch will be the easiest to maintain in the long run with clusterit.

Ryujin · 2007-04-27 03:38:56

I didn't know that many were reverse engeniered, I will look into pulling them out and making a "US-friendly" codecs package.

iphitus · 2007-04-27 09:29:27

i wouldnt use Arch, i'd use debian, there you'll have a more stable base, and no license issues whatsoever.

James

sweiss · 2007-04-27 09:58:35

I wonder why so many people are suggesting *not* to use Arch. From the distributions I've come across, Arch is the easiest to administer on a single machine. I believe it would also make things simpler for clusters.

Ryujin · 2007-04-27 18:33:07

The fact that iphitus suggests something else puts a lot of sway on it, although I think that licensing won't be much of an issue. Despite this though Arch might be the best for clustering. Although Ubuntu is an excellent option that has been tailored to education already and has excellent support for MPI (Arch's lam-MPI is orphaned and out of date, and doesn't fix the path properly, I am working on a new PKGBuild), is there something similar to clusterit in Ubuntu/Debian?

STiAT · 2007-04-28 02:00:42

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuClusters

I'm with you arch will be one of the easierst choices to customize. Though, my choice would be Ubuntu for your plans anyway. Why?
Ubuntu is (at least) as easy to build up as "default installation" as well.
There won't be any license problems in the US at all, since they provide them as a seperate package (since 7.04).
In my eyes, it's more stable and reliable for a configuration as you are planning (personal point of view).

Kind regards,
STi

Last edited by STiAT (2007-04-28 02:04:47)

Arch Linux

#1 2007-04-26 05:07:01

Arch in schools

#2 2007-04-26 14:42:56

Re: Arch in schools

#3 2007-04-26 16:11:39

Re: Arch in schools

#4 2007-04-27 03:37:34

Re: Arch in schools

#5 2007-04-27 03:38:56

Re: Arch in schools

#6 2007-04-27 09:29:27

Re: Arch in schools

#7 2007-04-27 09:58:35

Re: Arch in schools

#8 2007-04-27 18:33:07

Re: Arch in schools

#9 2007-04-28 02:00:42

Re: Arch in schools

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