[Gllug] Research Machine Client Connect

[Xander D Harkness]

Alain Williams wrote:

>I am helping my kids' school, they are looking at a quote for a couple of boxes
>from Research Machines -- who currently supply all their IT kit.
>
>I am looking to provide a direct equivalent/competitor to the quote, but using
>a box sourced on the open market. It will have M$ XP on it, since that is what
>the quote is for. It is my intention to introduce them to Linux in due course,
>but I need to do a good job on the current spec & gain the credibility (teachers
>are incredibly conservative).
>
>One thing that RM have put down is a licence for 'Community Connect 3 Client' and
>their media server software.
>* The first seems to be just a nice system admin tool, is it more than this ?
>* Does it use proprietary protocols/... ?
>* I assume that it doesn't support Linux ?
>* It seems to use a browser interface, they talk about M$ IE5 will this work with
>  mozilla ?
>
I am sure that others will have interacted with RM and have their own 
stories.  I have been told by RM staff that they make their systems as 
convoluted as possible to lock in their clients.... seems familiar.

The network cards check for specific code on the hard drive and if you 
have changed the operating system (even as much as replacing XP with XP) 
then it will refuse to work.  I would regard any hardware or service 
offered by RM as less than worthless.  I would not accept their services 
even if offered free of charge as there would always be some attempt to 
corrupt the systems or some attempt at lock-in.

On their use of IE5, it is now considered bug ridden by Microsoft and 
any attempt to fix bugs using MS updates will replace IE5 with IE6.

>
>The media server software seems to just read CDs to disk and serve them up from
>there. Is it more than that ? Standard protocols ?
>
This is similar to CD server software which is available for about £45.  
I think the CD server software goes a little further as some versions 
include a client to pretend that the remote CD server is a local disk.

>
>Can anyone shed light on the above ?
>
>  
>
Kind regards
Xander

-- 
Recent investments will yield a slight profit.



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