Puavo overview

• Puavo-web
• Image based "Puavo-OS"
• Puavo concept

Puavo is an administration tool, image based desktop and a concept. The administration tool can be used without the image based desktops, but using them together brings the full benefits of the system. As a concept Puavo brings a new view to ICT management in schools. Life cycle thinking is built-in in the concept - old and new computers work the same way, no need to standardise on a single model just to get drivers managed. The whole desktop can be tested before pushing out updates and atomic image updates mean that all devices get exactly the same system version and no old versions or long forgotten configuration options are left lurking on some devices. As part of the concept the devices also support each other - netbooting devices act as access points for laptops and BYOD devices.

For those who know LTSP, image based desktop is an LTSP image that supports also locally installed laptops using the same image. Puavo administration tools make it easy to manage masses of users and clients.

Puavo has been created by Opinsys - a company in Finland specialising in supporting school ICT systems. Its usecase - many schools in different cities and school districts - is somewhat special and there were no tools to support this when it started. Not having to duplicate all management tools for every school separately frees resources to serve the needs the users have instead of spending more time on infrastructure updates.

There's more about Puavo's history in Opinsys's blog: http://labs.opinsys.com/blog/2014/01/21/managing-thousands-of-linux-destops-with-puavo/