Re: [PLUG] Thin vs. Slim Clients?

[Jason <jason@nocks.com>]

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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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