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Kevin Tunison wrote: > > Older than that, minus the GUI bit. I worked in a company that > utilized a UNIX server with WYSE (dumb) terminals. These badboys were > Apple II E style, yet cost hundreds of pounds to replace the > old-school hardware. It takes a lot of noise for people to realize > thin computing doesn't have to cost that much anymore. Although it is worth bearing in mind that thin computing solutions are rarely a huge money saver on hardware (except where like Tom you deploy on old PCs as the thin client). Where I've seen such things deployed, it is rare the thin client is hugely cheaper than a thicker client. The saving is usually to be had in system administration effort, reliability etc. In that it is easy to upgrade the server side, install software, provide proper backup and replacement for every settings, and every byte of user data. For big organisations, where they get a better price on thin client hardware this is probably somewhat different, but unless they start shipping thin clients in huge volumes it is unlikely that small buyers will get huge discounts on the hardware. Also I think some of the Windows thin client solutions put people off. Microsoft Windows was never designed as a multiuser OS, and MS Windows thin client solutions generally result in administering N badly hacked virtual Windows boxes with mediocre performance, and limited advantages over running Windows locally. As such the big benefits (less system admin effort, easier upgrades) disappear very quickly. Where as Unix and Unix like OSes were designed as multiuser OSes, and so don't have to "hack" stuff to make it work in this environment. You also get a much bigger incremental benefit server side when running multiple copies of the same software, as the whole shared library architecture was designed and built for just this scenario. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html