thin client or stand alone - which is better?

[Charles Austin]

On Jan 25, 2008 2:43 PM, Jim Hutchinson <jim at ubuntu-rocks.org> wrote:

> Greetings all,
>
> We currently have an edubuntu thin-client lab running on some very old
> client hardware (new server). We will be getting some upgraded client
> hardware this summer. They will be HP D530s which are 5 years old but
> a big jump up from the 10 year old stuff we have now.
>
> I suspect these will run the edubuntu desktop edition just fine. The
> question I have is, what are the benefits and drawbacks to desktop
> install vs thin-client?

I have tried this both ways, but with much newer client hardware than it
sounds like you have.  I set up the thick clients (Edubuntu installed on the
local disk) to use LDAP authentication and NFS mount the home directories
from the LTSP server.  That way, students could use either thin or thick
clients and be able to save and access their work from any machine.

I eventually got this to work (first time out with LDAP, it took me a
while), but the login process was very slow on each machine.  Apps also took
some time to load, I suspect because of network congestion in reading conf
files from the home directory of the user.  In frustration, I PXE booted all
the former "thick" client machines, and they ran much faster as thin clients
(no changes to the network environment - Cisco 2950t, gig uplink to server,
spanning tree disabled).  Your mileage may vary.


> How do we decide which way to go? It seems
> that desktop installs would offer a speed advantage but would be
> harder to install, upgrade and maintain.
>
You could keep all of the thick clients updated with some cron jobs, but
troubleshooting individual problems is more difficult because of the
distributed environment.  With a thin client system, there is only one box
to troubleshoot and keep clean.

Also, for what it is worth, I did not realize that the Edubuntu/Ubuntu
client software does not install openssh-server by default.  Coming from a
Fedora environment, it was a minor frustration to have to install it on each
machine.

Given a choice, which way
> would you go?
>
Hope that helps,
Charles
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