W. Chris Shank on Wed, 7 Aug 2002 14:39:29 -0400


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Re: [PLUG] Thin vs. Slim Clients?


I've used VNC for remote management, so I understand waht it's like, but i
think it's still focused to the machine it's connecting to. what i'd really
like to do it setup something between the unix labs i used in college and
sun's sunray 1. I'll look into this more. thanks for the input.


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> On Wednesday 07 August 2002 09H:30, W. Chris Shank wrote:
>> what i'd like to setup is a minimal local OS (or boot of the net is
>> ok, but use a local swap partition, and local /dev and /mnt. /home and
>> /usr would be mounted over the network.
>>
>> i think this is probably similar to the sunFire 1 (i think that was
>> the name of it) which was Sun's thin client product. the kool thinkg
>> abnout the sunfire 1 was that you could kill a thin client then go to
>> another thin client and login and get EXACTLY where you were before,
>> all windows open
> 
> This is how VNC, Citrix, and M$ Terminal Server work. If memory serves
> me  right, VNC uses the RFB protocol. Citrix and M$ Terminal Server can
> both work  with the RDP protocal. Citrix can also use RDP extensions
> between Citrix  Clients and Servers. These protocols achieve the same
> goal, just stemming  from different companies.
> 
> With VNC, for example, you can view an X desktop session on another X
> desktop,  disconnect, and resume the desktop session on a Windows box
> or even some  handhelds from across your network.
> 
> It sounds like VNC does most of what you are looking for. You can find
> it at:  http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/
> 
> It's free software. It was originally developed by AT&T in the UK.
> There are  VNC servers and clients for all sorts of platforms. There's
> even a Java  version to access an X desktop from a Java-enabled Web
> browser.
> 
> There are also a number of VNC-related projects w/ slightly different
> goals  (better control stream compression, better integration w/
> standard X  protocols, etc.). These can be found off of the
> Contributions/Modifications  page. One of these should meet your needs
> (if not the vanilla VNC itself).
> 
> LTSP sounds more like a barebones X Terminal.
> 
> I also found the following project, PXES Linux Thin Client, in a quick
> google  search:
> http://pxes.sourceforge.net/
> 
> Part of the description is as follows:
> "After booting the thin client will be capable of accessing any XDM
> server  presenting the graphical login screen or any Microsoft Terminal
> Server  through RDP protocol.... if you need such devices you can
> configure the  clients to use sound, local print services, USB, cd-rom,
> etc."
> 
> According to the project's website VNC compatibility will likely be
> added, but  XDMCP (or perhaps Low-bandwidth X, yet another
> thin-client-related project)  may fit your needs. The one stumbling
> block may be the reliance on PXE (Intel  Pre-eXecution Environment),
> but the project claims to work without hardware  supporting PXE.
> 
> There are many other micro Linux distributions, but this one seems to
> have  most of what you are looking for.
> 
>> and everything. i don't remember if it had CDROMS, but it did have
>> sound. i thought it was a very kool product, but expensive.
>>
>> >> the better solution would be to make a slim client (a term i just
>> >> invented, AFAIK) - like the Sun computer labs I used in college.
>> >> each workstation had a boot OS, but mounted /home, /usr, etc over
>> >> the network. How would this compare with the performance of the
>> >> thin client? say the machine was a P133 with 64M of ram. Is it too
>> >> much overhead to have KDE3 running locally? Is there any way to get
>> >> a better hybrid of LTSP and local fucntionality (sound, cd, floppy,
>> >> etc).
>> >>
>> >> what are your experiences?
>> >>
> 
> I've used VNC on many different platforms. It works quite well. In a
> previous  message, I also mentioned usage of M$ Terminal Server. That
> was for an  employer that had a Windows application they needed to run.
> 
> I've used VNC to remotely troubleshoot software developed by a previous
> client  of mine. That software was running on some of Monster.com's web
> servers.  Worked quite well.
> 
> I haven't used the PXES Linux Thin Client, but it sounds like it may be
>  exactly what you are looking for. I'd be curious to hear your results
> with it  if you try it out.
> 
>> >> thanks
>> >
>> > --
>> > Kevin Brosius
> 
> Cheers,
> Jason Nocks
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