I have the same challenge. We run around 200 desktops with mixed hardware and have the desire to convert them to Linux and use Firefox to access Citrix web interface.
In an ideal world I would take Ubuntu which looks like the best desktop for business, customize it including ica rpm, then use PXE to boot, pulling it off a TFTP/NFS share and Kickstarting it to accommodate the different hardware configurations. Sounds cool huh?
It can be done? but it?s not easy. Here is a quick list of challenges I ran into after researching it one weekend.
Things you might want to run on the desktop and not in Citrix.
? Smart Phone for Linux (Zultys linux softphone)
? Linux fax server support (we use Captaris Rightfax)
Ubuntu specific challenges
? Only some of kickstart functionality is supported
? Deb vs Rpm
? Getting all the pieces to work together is not trivial
Customizations could include:
? Disk partitioning
o Unify disk configuration
? Network configuration
o Set for dhcp etc.
? LDAP
? Kerberos
? Samba
? Firewall configuration
? Custom package selection
? X Window System configuration
? Citrix configuration
? Firefox configuration
o JRE
o Custom links
? LAMP
o SYSinfo PHP script
? Nagios agent
? FreeNX server
? Centralized logging
o syslog
? NTP sync
? ClamAV/fprot
? Webmin
? Screen Capture
? Softphone
? Fax
I?m immersed in building a DR/BCP strategy and then I am going to re-visit this in a couple months. I?ll try to post info as I come across it. Please keep me posted as you learn things also.
