Your feedback is much appreciated

[Gavin McCullagh]

Hi,

On Fri, 15 Jun 2007, Mon Sagullo wrote:

> I intend to use Edubuntu in our new computer lab.  Through this list, I
> found my way to www.eway.com 's site. 

Do you mean

http://www.ewayco.com/

> assuming these are “decent” specs for a thin client that could last for
> at least 3 years, before it gets "too slow" for newer  release of
> Edubuntu down the road.

Thin clients shouldn't really age like that.  Your server may need
upgrading in time but that's relatively affordable.  The thin clients are
already doing almost all they are going to need to do -- in fact, LTSP5 is
hopefully going to be optimised in the next while to speed it up a little.

Note I am talking now about a thin client not a "thick diskless client".
If you want those, that's different.

> My primary objetives, hardware-wise, is to have thin clients that are "
> 
> 1. Low power consumption
> 2. “Quick enough" to run Edubuntu and most of its included programs
> 3. Boot from LAN
> 4. Sturdy and easy to maintain

A few things occur to me:

1. Teeny thin clients are small and could be easy to steal.  You may need
   to bolt them down which might cost something.  Big ugly ones might be
   better if you think this might be a problem.
2. You can quite script your thin clients to all power off at a certain
   time every day if nobody is logged in.  We could try to think up a
   system to power down thin clients if nobody logs in for, say, one hour.
3. Thin clients must use much more power when booting than idle and on, so
   [2] would be a delicate balance.
4. Boot from lan is a given.
5. Thin clients take very little maintenance time in general, though there
   is a little expertise involved.

> for lower cost in operating expense, to use 15-inch Flat LCD monitors.

Compared to CRTs, I'd be inclined to agree.

> My proposed server is an HP Proliant ML 110 G4 (Single Dual-Core Xeon
> Processor 1.86, with 2Gig of RAM) to handle 40 planned thin client per
> server. A couple of Linksys 24-port router to handle the traffic.

I imagine that's a 64-bit cpu.  Just the same, I'd seriously consider
running 32-Bit Ubuntu for the time being.  When all is stable and things
like the flash plugin work on 64-bit you can move up.

For 40 users, you probably need more RAM.  I would try to get up to 4GB per
server.  I'd try to be flexible and see how you go between 30 and 40 users.
It all depends what applications they're all using. 

> 2. Aside from being "good enough" (assuming these specs are), any idea if
> this set-up could "last" for at least the next three years, before a
> distro of Edubuntu starts requiring more computing horsepower?

The thin clients definitely should be powerful enough.  You should test one
before you order a large number though.

> 3. Also, is it possible to boot from WAN, using Edubuntu?

You mean wireless or a WAN?  Not easily over wireless though it is
possible.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EdubuntuFAQ#head-89dcf777d5d9c472dd5aa9a15bb17de90c6f0860

As regards the thin client specs, they all look fine.  One question is
whether, if you're buying so many thin clients, you should be thinking in
terms of buying thin clients capable of running as "thick clients" which
have no disks but run their own applications.  The main advantage of this
is it should create less network load and less load on the server.  Serious
multimedia applications will work better that way too as video will be
played and displayed locally instead of sent across the network.  Although
this running mode is not available easily on edubuntu yet, it's in
development.  

That route does involve upgrading thick clients more often as they need to
be capable of running applications themselves.  You can have a mixed
environment, most thin and a few thick clients.

Gavin