Pakket: desktop-autoloader (0.0.4-2)

Accelerate Diskless Workstation systems by pre-loading a dummy Desktop Session

This package is for diskless Linux clients as you often find them in school class rooms running an LTSP based fat client environment.

The logon into and the initial session startup on such diskless workstations can be considerably slow, because all applications need to be fetched from one server hosting the fat clients' filesystem.

The situation gets worse, if 24 computers in the same class room get switched on simultaneously or the teacher tells the students to open the same application (e.g. Libreoffice) at the same time.

However, this issue only occurs to the first student using a diskless workstation that day. If the diskless machine is equipped with enough RAM, other students see all applications being launched within a couple of seconds.

Reason: once an application has been launched, it ends up in the diskless machine's filesystem cache in RAM.

So, this package pre-loads a desktop session of the admin's choice plus some extra popular applications. It does this before 7:30 in the morning, only. So, combine this package with Wake-On-LAN or an RTC Timer to make sure systems are booted before 7:30am. With such a setup in place, the diskless machines will have been prepared for work before the first students enter the class room.

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