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KDE:The Korporate Desktop Environment
Propagate Linux from your back office to your front desk -- and all cubicles in between -- with KDE
by Aaron J. Seigo.
Today, whether or not Open Source development can produce complex and useful software is no longer at issue: that question has been answered resoundingly, "yes," by the sophistication, capabilities, and widespread deployment of Linux. However, the parity and power of Linux has been experienced mostly in the server room. In a way, that makes sense: the efforts to build Linux as an alternative server operating system spans a decade, while work on modern desktop environments for Linux has only truly matured within the last two years.
But youth isn't the only reason Linux hasn't made a big splash on the desktop. Until recently, pre-loaded Linux desktops were fairly exotic. The average desktop user also tends to be less technically sophisticated than the average server administrator, and Linux has a history of being a technically demanding system.
Moreover, companies think with their checkbooks, and the economic benefits of a Linux-based desktop system are not as easily or as immediately felt as the benefits of a Linux server. It's little wonder that desktop usage of Linux has lagged considerably behind server deployments.
Fortunately, the prospects for Linux on the desktop are changing. Increasingly draconian licensing agreements, expensive software, and security nightmares are pushing users toward Linux. It also doesn't hurt that Linux has become highly respected, with IBM, Oracle, and HP (among others) building significant businesses on the shoulders of Tux. Most importantly, sophisticated desktop software is now available for Linux.
KDE, the K Desktop Environment, version 3 (http://www.kde.org) is a cutting-edge desktop platform that's useful for both the average and sophisticated user. It's easy to use, robust, and full of features. Yes, it has cool icons, menus, and whiz-bang graphics. But, it also has a set of core features -- namely, central configuration and resource sharing -- that make it ideal for office use. If you want to switch your entire office -- from server farm to front desk -- to open source, KDE's common desktop features can bootstrap your effort.
KDE: Konquer the Desktop Effortlessly
While you might be familiar with installing KDE on a single system, you may have more limited experience deploying it in multi-system environments. In environments like an office, or a corporate or university department, you have three options for widespread installation:
- You can treat each system individually, and install an entire KDE system on each desktop. While this approach appears to be simple and direct (after all, it leverages what you already know how to do), it does little to lower costs and improve utility. In particular, each system is independent and has to receive individual attention when you want to modify the configuration or when something goes wrong.
- You can install KDE on a central server, and let users run all of the KDE applications from there. Since KDE is based on X, you can run KDE applications remotely, leveraging the computing horsepower of your server, and saving money on each desktop. This approach is often referred to as a "thin client" solution, reflecting the modest demands placed on each desktop system. (Designing and implementing a thin client solution is outside of the scope of this article, but there are some excellent online resources that cover the topic in depth. One such resource is the Linux Terminal Server site at http://www.ltsp.org.) There are two disadvantages to the thin client approach: it takes little advantage of the powerful processors found in modern desktop systems, and it may place an undue burden on network resources.
- Like the first approach, you can install KDE on each desktop, but share (using a file server and something like NFS) common resources (like KDE configuration and application data files) between all users. While this configuration is a little more complicated to establish, using shared, centralized resources can help lower support and training costs, and makes collaboration and information sharing easier. It also utilizes existing resources more optimally.
KDE can be deployed using any of these methods, but the latter approach is probably best if you're trying to push desktop Linux out to a number of users. Let's see how to deploy and share KDE resources from a central server, and how to create a standard corporate desktop that can be customized only to the extent that you allow.
KDE:The Korporate Desktop Environment
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