Migrating lots of dissimilar PCs to a standard Linux configuration

I would like to move a bunch of users from Windows to Linux. There is
a standard set of applications and other settings that I'd like each
user to have. Each user currently has a Windows box that is pretty
much unique in terms of hardware.

Is there an easy way to automate the installation and configuration of
a Linux desktop to each machine? Trying to install and configure each
machine individually is a bit of a show stopper.

I'm a bit of a Debian fanatic, so I'd like to use Debian (because of
the ease of upgrading, familiarity with its quirks, etc.), but I'm
willing to use any other distribution so long as there is some way to
keep it updated with the same level of effort as "apt-get upgrade".

Can anybody who has gone through a similar process give me any advice?

Thanks!

....Edmund.

Edmund wrote:

> I would like to move a bunch of users from Windows to Linux. There is
> a standard set of applications and other settings that I'd like each
> user to have. Each user currently has a Windows box that is pretty
> much unique in terms of hardware.
>
.... might check on this: www.partimage.org

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michael J. Tobler: motorcyclist, surfer, # Black holes result
skydiver, and author: "Inside Linux", # when God divides the
"C++ HowTo", "C++ Unleashed" # universe by zero

On Sat, 28 Jun 2003 20:36:57 -0400 wrote Edmund <no.spam@address.com> in
comp.os.linux.misc with <3dorfvkg1i9fvn2iiec2bq6bnlmldlgfin@4ax.com>

>I would like to move a bunch of users from Windows to Linux. There is
>a standard set of applications and other settings that I'd like each
>user to have. Each user currently has a Windows box that is pretty
>much unique in terms of hardware.

That shouldn't be much of a problem. If you compile a kernel with pretty much
everything in it as a module the hardware is no problem at all. I think that
many distributions do this in order to avoid getting problems with the
hardware setup. Once the hardware is established everything else should be
pretty easy. Only X might be a bit of a problem if you have many different gfx
cards because of the individual drivers.

--
Gerhard Gruber

Für jedes menschliche Problem gibt es immer eine einfache Lösung:
Klar, einleuchtend und falsch. (Henry Louis Mencken)