Diskless Clients (Thin Clients) are slowly but surely pushing into the market with "new" technology that is available right now. For some years now we have been developing deployment and use of Open Source free software (free as in freedom) for many applications. We can now offer deployment of complete computer systems for businesses and schools that build on Thin Clients (diskles computers) and Open Source solutions. This methology leads to enormous savings both in initial deployment costs and maintenance. 

The direction that was taken in the eighties i.e. that everyone had their own computer with a hard disk, operating system and all the user applications is extremely wasteful (the personal computer revolution). Maintenance costs alone are huge.

Remote Terminal Service Providers have done their best to resist the great cost of computing but they have not attained the forecast distribution nor the savings promised. Their best use has been for Accounting applications, especially small businesses can make considerable savings there. The solution lies in a compromise that uses the benefits of both worlds. Remote computing providers have not been able to easily offer thin client technology to their customers so there are no savings there. Users have needed full computers with hard disks, operating systems and the works such as virus protection and such. Where are the savings then? Microsoft has offered Terminal Servers for some time but the licensing costs are high. Not surprisingly because they don't see much benefit from their proliferation considering the enormous interests they hold in the above mentioned personal computer trend. 

Diskles clients only need a keyboard, screen and a little box with a network and video card.  Older computers can be used as Thin Clients, the hard disk is simply removed. Often the basic operating system (BIOS) of the hardware includes the functionality to make it act as a Thin Client (Etherboot or PXE). If the BIOS does not support Etherboot or PXE one can use a CD disk or USB key with some basic software that changes the box into a diskfree client.

What operating system does the user see? We have been developing technology that allows us to run Linux and Windows from the Terminal Server. The underlying OS is Linux with LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project). On top of that we drive the Windows operating systems in a Virtual Environment. Since the majority of users almost exclusively know and use Windows OS's we estimate that those operating systems will still dominate for some years to come. Linux distributions like Ubuntu have however matured in the last few years and quite a few users choose the Linux platform for their personal use.

The LTSP's website has quite a few success stories from deployments of Thin Clients and Terminal Servers. The benefits are overwhelming. The following is a list of some of the problems that are solved in a very efficient manner: 

• Access security: Security settings are controlled from one point and from the terms that are set there are no escapes. The clients have no hard disks and no local data to defend. They simply have no role as far as user rights and such are concerned. The basic OS is Linux which is a flavor of the time tested Unix OS. Unix has the longest and most successful development history of all modern operating systems. When operating systems are chosen for space research, other scientific research or medical applications, Unix is almost exclusively chosen. Unix simply has the best basic design of the OS's available. It is no coincident that Apple chose Unix for their future.
• Clean environment: The Terminal Server can purge user settings regularly or after each use. Junk that users have possibly encountered on the internet does not gain any foothold because it is cleaned automatically at the end of each session. This is simple to set up and perfect when many have access to a particular client computer / user name.
• Backup: All user data is saved on a central file server or the Terminal Server itself. This simplifies backup immensely. 
• Low deployment costs: To establish the Terminal Services you only need one relatively powerful computer and each access point is an inexpensive diskless OS free box with a screen, keyboard and mouse. The more Thin Clients to deploy the more you save relatively. 10 clients with a powerful Terminal Server could costs about $6,500 with deployment and one can save more by using older computers that may already be available on site. The cost could go down to $2,000 - $3,000 when upgrading a site that has older clients available. An older system can get a new life this way and the users can get access to 3 operating systems at the same time. One must certainly pay for each license used as before, that is those that are licensed but the Linux access needs no such licensing. The users would gain access to a central data storage on the Terminal Server or on a File Server that may have been present. Active Directory and other such technologies are still available.
• Service and maintenance costs: You can expect fewer failures because the system is central and it is simpler to secure one machine than many. Additionally the Clients do not operate their own OS's or hard disks and those two factors are the most fault prone elements on personal computers. User settings can be user specific as before since each user can have his own home on the Terminal Server and/or Directory Server (Active Directory for example). When an engineer conducts maintenance of any sort it is enouch for him to connect to the Terminal Server and add or make changes as requested. The Terminal Server can be set up in cluster configuration and thus insure that hardware failures don't trip the system.
• Stability: Linux and Unix are known for stability. Systems that we have deployed with Linux such as Firewalls, mail servers and so on are not rebooted for months and years sometimes, except for changes, updates or new installations. Memory leaks and many such problems that have plagued Windows OS's from the beginning are almost unknown in Linux. This is because the when designing the Unix core, they started at the right end so to speak. 
• Efficiency: The Terminal Server only needs a little more memory then a regular workstation to service hundreds of clients. The memory is utilized ingeniously so that all will have lots to burn as far as memory goes.  

We are first and foremost talking about using Open Source technology. Open Office replaces MS-Office since it opens both MS_Office documents and saves in those formats too.  Evolution works well for e-mail and it connects to Exchange mail servers as well as other types of mail servers.

As was mentioned before remote Terminal Services can be used for various Windows applications that are not available for Linux. Especially those that relate to accounting and business / database operations. Those applications can also be run in Vine on Linux or in fore mentioned virtual systems. If you are interested in making huge savings for your company, school or customer, contact us. We offer ready solutions and training for engineers in setting up and maintaining Linux Terminal Servers. We can also demonstrate this technology.