FW: [Malvern] Thin Client Linux

[Stuart Parkington]

Ian,

You got it! That's pretty much nailed the idea. The concept allows you 
to centralise administration and minimise ongoing maintenance. It is 
especially useful is situations where you have many people doing the 
same (or very similar) things - such as call centers, cyber cafes or 
classrooms.
For instance, imagine you had a call center with 100 terminals all 
connecting to one server, upgrading the software for all the terminals 
is simply a matter of upgrading once on the server and every gets the 
new version.

> 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.
With a distro like ThinStation it averages at about a 10 or 15 MB 
install. With careful pruning and if you know exactly what modules you 
need (eg what network/video cards you have deployed) you can get it down 
to 5 or 10MBs. With installs this small it becomes possible to boot from 
the network, which is often what is deployed. In that case a single 
'build' is prepared and each terminal configured to boot using the NIC 
as the first boot device. When it picks up an IP address via DHCP it is 
also passed the network location of the OS, which is downloaded 
(normally via  TFTP) and executed from a RAM DISK. This again makes 
management and upgrade easier and quicker. (This is a sweeping, 
generalist description!)

> 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.
I normally prefer to think of it in terms as 'slices' of a machine 
rather then virtual machines, as clients may need to share certain 
facilities. Maybe part of a file system for instance. The principle you 
describe is pretty much spot on though.


> Is this right?  Can I get a gold star?
Gold star and 5 house points! :D

Regards
Stuart


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