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I meant to add the k12ltsp distro used to be the easiest to get going and admin S 2008/11/13 Steve Lee <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>: > 2008/11/12 Richard Brown <rich@xxxxxxxxxxx>: >> If we went fully Linux with purpose built software to manage the >> company, what advantage would thin client make please? Local clients >> would need to process the database, and also emails, web browse, word >> processor etc. > > It's a trade off of where the processing occurs and network activity/access. > > With thin client the client become a dumb graphical terminal (plus > sound) and the server does all the work and runs all the programs > (it's pretty much a return to the old days of terminals on a shared > big computer). Thus you can use low spec or older, cheaper, greener > machines or special thin client devices, they don't even need discs as > you can arrange remote boot with every thing running off the server. > > However the server needs to be able to run all the programs > concurrently and have enough storage; with applications that are not > processor or IO intensive that is not an issue, though you may want > one or 2 thick clients to run programs like CAD or media editing. > > The network traffic may increase, though with only input events and > display updates flying around it can be low and there are various > protocols like NX that are more efficient. I guess you could have a > single dedicated network connection from the server to a file or > database server which would be better than all the clients doing > file/db access on the main network but I'm guessing here. > > As the server becomes the place where all the programs run you get > simplified admin/deployment but it is also a single point of failure. > Though I guess you can reduce that with care. > > I think you could even mix and match, with a basic thin client set-up > and some users running windows apps in a virtual box or on thick > clients. > > This really all works because of the design of the X windowing system > which all Linux apps use. LTSP mostly provides a way to get everything > going, e.g remote boot. > > If you want to play I understand edubuntu includes a LTSP server and > makes it easy to set up networks. Last time I look the LTSP project > was very well run with a good site. > > You could perhaps ask on the schoolforge.org.uk mail list as several > people there have experience of using LTSP. > > -- > Steve Lee > Open Source Assistive Technology Software and Accessibility > fullmeasure.co.uk > -- Steve Lee Open Source Assistive Technology Software and Accessibility fullmeasure.co.uk -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html