FW: [Malvern] Thin Client Linux

[Ian Pascoe]

Cheers Stuart

This is the third atempt at getting my head around this thin client
business, but I have just had a Eureka moment  so let's see if I got it
right.

The dumb terminal / PC just needs software on it to run a network connection
and the connection to the server, plus minimal drivers for screen, and other
IO devices.

The server runs a virtual machine and just sends out to the terminal what it
has to display, whilst the terminal just has to send back what it's IO
devices have done ie mouse move, click, keyboard press etc.

Is this right?  Can I get a gold star?

Ian


-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart Parkington [mailto:mrsparks_maillists at yahoo.com]
Sent: 26 November 2006 17:03
To: ianpascoe at btinternet.com
Cc: Malvern at mailman.lug.org.uk
Subject: Re: [Malvern] Thin Client Linux


Ian,

There are a few decent projects on Sourceforge which are 'specialized'
distros to do exactly this. The two I've used before, although there are
others, are:

1. PXES - http://pxes.sourceforge.net (which now seems to be at
/http://www.2x.com/pxes/)
2. ThinStation - http://thinstation.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/ThIndex

ThinStation is the one I've used most, to created terminals out of
normal PCs and connect to Linux servers using NX, VNC and X-Windows or
VNC, RDP or Citrix on a Windows servers. I've rolled ThinStation out to
a couple of mid-scale customers (300-500 seat types) very successfully.

ThinStation allows you to set up individual connections on individual
terminals, so for demos I tend to connect to a Citrix box on TTY1, then
switch to TTY2, VNC on my laptop, to TTY3 Linux GDM login prompt. In the
real world I'd normally just have a default connection to which ever
desktop I need to deliver. That way the end users just thinks he has a
Windows/Linux desktop.

For the back end, you need to set up a DHCP, TFTP and (probably) PXE
boot set up, which is pretty well documented in the documentation).

ThinStation can also be easily customized with a couple of graphics
and/or colour codes to give an individual feel to fit in with the
branding of whatever the customer happens to be.

Another thing I've looked into doing with them, but to date haven't, got
round to, is replacing the standard IDE drives with 'flash' memory, to
reduce heat and power consumption etc. I've been looking at both Compact
Flash cards and IDE flash adapters, but like I said haven't tried them
in anger yet.

The other main project I'd suggest, although to date I've not really had
a great look at is the LTSP (www.ltsp.org).

Hope some of that is useful to you.

Regards,
Stuart

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Linux #423936  Ubuntu #4500
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