On Mon, Sep 1, 2014 at 3:42 AM, Dr. David Kirkby (Kirkby Microwave Ltd) <drkir...@kirkbymicrowave.co.uk> wrote: > On 28 August 2014 16:55, Vincent Delecroix <20100.delecr...@gmail.com> wrote: >> 2014-08-28 17:44 UTC+02:00, Jori Mantysalo <jori.mantys...@uta.fi>: > >>> I am now thinking for example university class using Sage as a part of >>> some course. Teachers don't want to use time for being it-support; >>> students do not try installing Sage, if it SEEMS to be complicated. >> >> Note that for teaching/installation there is an alternative: tell the >> students to come with a USB stick and just clone the sage-debian live >> (http://sagedebianlive.metelu.net/). It is very easy to use and all >> students will have exactly the same system. The procedure to duplicate >> the key is integrated inside the key, so the time to set up 200 keys >> is in theory just log(200)/log(2) * (time of one install), ignoring >> the fact that you could clone several keys at once. >> >> The key is definitely not set up for development. But it's still >> doable using a local drive (intensive access to the filesystem on a >> USB stick will just burn it quickly). >> >> It is completely self contained with no it-support needed (except that >> you need computers that are able to boot on USB). >> >> Vincent > > I can't imagine a single *professional* system admin in a university > would want students booting computers from USB sticks. I'm not saying > some random lecturer who takes on a system admin role would mind, but > from a security point of view, having PCs booting from a USB stick is > risky. Malicious software could do any sort of nasty. I've reset > passwords on Windows machines doing that - boot Linux, mount the NTFS > file system, edit the files. > > If students have their own laptops, then it is less of a risk, but I > would imagine the lecturer would spend all his/her time trying to help > a student get his/her laptop to boot from a USB stick. You would need > to get into the BIOS for that, and many computers are different about > how that works. > > Of course, the same argument can be made about booting from any form > of ISO image, such as a DVD.
I'm also personally uncomfortable with the whole USB stick/DVD boot proposal for making Sage easier to use for similar reasons. However, it's important to distinguish between a modern professionally run computer lab (with full disk encryption, BIOS passwords, fast network), etc., and a second-hand lab of older computers in a developing country with crappy or non-existent network, say. There's huge value in the USB/ISO Live linux approach to running Sage in *that* context. Thierry, I'm definitely +1 your efforts, even though I'm not personally likely to use them. If we should feature something more prominently somewhere on the sage website, let me know. -- William Stein Professor of Mathematics University of Washington http://wstein.org wst...@uw.edu -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-devel" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
