[Sussex] LINUX on Mini-ITX / Via?

[Steve Dobson]

Hi

On 10 January 2003 at 09:52 Geoff Teale wrote:
> Sorry for my typing, Paul was around until 2AM and I got up at 5:30AM, so
> I'm slightly wobbly - not Pauls fault (as he'son this list I best not
blame
> him :) )...

I was working until 2AM last night (from home luckily), so I decided to work
from home to day.  Given my drive, and the icy roads, this seamed like the
best option.

> What you co[u]ld do is assign some programs to run wholly on the client
> (noteably StarOffice) and some to run on the server with only the GUI part
> running on the client XServer - this is not the same as the old-fashioned
> X-Terminal approach.  All programs are stored centrally though (so there
> could be a network performance issue).

I agree you could do this, but this complex set up with some programs
configured
locally, some remotely is going to be even harder (and therefore more
expensive)
to admin.  This is the opposite of what I want.  I want a simple to admin
user
environment.  I make one change to one file and all nodes see that change.

You can you rsync to do this, and I know of sites that do.  What I looking
for
is a system that is designed to be centrally installed and admined, but
remotely
run.  The only system I am aware of that does this is Sun's Java WebStart.
Otherwise one has to spend phone number type figures on the servers.

>                                         The arguement is that this costs
> less than a PC on each desk (although, the mini-ITX _is_ a PC). The kit in
> the netbox is cheap though - a £69 motherboard (with integrated CPU,
Video,
> Sound, Network), £25 woth of RAM, £30 of flash reader - unfortunately they
> seem to charge you a _lot_ of money to put this case in their rather
pretty
> aluminium cases.

My argument that the standard x86 based PC system (lets ignore the OS) is 
cheaper because of the numbers that ship.  The mini-ITX made be built on the
same basic hardware components, but it doesn't sell 1/10th of the numbers
world-wide that Dell ship just in the UK.  I don't have the figures but I
think that guess is not going to be found to be wrong.

Steve