[cumbria_lug] Terminal server on a LiveCD?

[avantman42 at users.sourceforge.net]

Earlier today I was talking to someone who works for a company that provide
IT support to small companies. They're a fully Windows outfit, but they are
apparently investigating the possibility of extending the life of older
hardware by using Live CDs with a terminal server client like rdesktop. The
idea is that the CD boots, automatically launches the TS client, and
connects to the server.

The result is that the user's first interaction is to enter their Windows
user name & password at a standard Windows login box. Many users don't even
realise that they aren't working at their local machine.

Obviously you need a powerful server, but the money that would have been
spent buying new desktops could be put towards the server. Plus, the new
system should be easier/cheaper to administer.

I don't know which Live CD they are using, but he said that it was on
SourceForge.net, and was designed to be easy to customise, so I guess it's
something like Morphix

What do people think about this? Is it a useful way to start getting Linux
into businesses? The users won't realise they're using Linux, and in a
sense they won't be, but the bosses will start to hear about Linux. Could
we end up with businesses that have Linux clients connecting to Windows
servers (running Windows apps)?

Russ


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