There are different ways of setting up a Skolelinux solution. It can be installed on just one standalone PC, or as a region-wide solution at many schools operated centrally. This flexibility makes a huge difference to the configuration of network components, servers and client machines.
The purpose of the different profiles is explained in the network architecture chapter.
If LTSP is intended to be used, take a look at the LTSP Hardware Requirements wiki page.
The computers running Debian Edu / Skolelinux must have either 32 bit (Debian architecture 'i386', oldest supported processors are 686 class ones) or 64 bit (Debian architecture 'amd64') x86 processors.
Thin clients with only 256 MiB RAM and 400 MHz are possible, though more RAM and faster processors are recommended.
For workstations, diskless workstations and standalone systems, 1500 MHz and 1024 MiB RAM are the absolute minimum requirements. For running modern webbrowsers and LibreOffice at least 2048 MiB RAM is recommended.
The minimum disk space requirements depend on the profile which is installed:
combined main server + LTSP server + workstation (if a GUI on the server is desired): 60 GiB (plus additional space for user accounts).
LTSP server: 40 GiB.
workstation or standalone: 30 GiB.
minimal networked machine installation: 4 GiB.
LTSP servers need two network cards when using the default network architecture:
eth0 is connected to the main network (10.0.0.0/8),
eth1 is used for serving LTSP clients.
Laptops are movable workstations, so they have the same requirements as workstations.
A list of tested hardware is provided at https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Hardware/ . This list is not nearly complete.
https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn is an effort to document how to install, configure and use Debian on some specific hardware, allowing potential buyers to know if that hardware is supported and existing owners to know how get the best out of that hardware.