<html><head><style type="text/css"></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt">These are valuable info and considerably guiding me in the right direction in "stitching" together our new lab.  <br><br>Kindly correct me if I am wrong: so If our students will be using OpenOffice as an example, I have to go with a thick client? Or, is it possible for the diskless thin client, with the kids using their thumb drives, to run OpenOffice, and just save their work in the server?<br><br>The current lab we have are using Windows; this licensed OS came with aging desktops. It is a mix of XP and 98SE.  We have an existing "server" that came with XP Pro.  I was brought in to help minimize the overall cost - hardware, software and power consumption, while still being able to stay true to the vision-mission of the school.  I have touched FOSS, and I am comfortable enough with it.  I gave a Live-CD of Edubuntu to the existing instructors we have a couple of months ago, so they can familiarize with it.<br><br>One advantage I have is, the new lab will be from scratch. Of course the other priceless advantage I have, is this sort of cooperative community.<br><br>Aside from getting a decent switch, are there brands out there that are "unfriendly" to Ubuntu? Locally, we have Linksys, D-Link, Zyxel and 3COM.<br><br>I will be presenting my "packaged idea" to the Board of Trustees first week of August.  Their primary concern of course, is the cost. So, I am focusing my presentation on that. Mine is to find the balance between 3 factors: direct benefits to the students' learning experience; 2nd would be less headache for me, and of course, the cost.<br><br>Best regards,<br><br>Mon<br><div> </div><div><font color="#0000ff" face="verdana, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><strong></strong></font> </div><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">----- Original Message ----<br><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">From: Todd O'Bryan <toddobryan@mac.com><br>Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2007 10:33:26 AM<br><br><div>On Sat, 2007-06-16 at 16:38 -0700, ramonsagullo@yahoo.com wrote:<br>> I could use more tutoring on the salient differences between a<br>> "diskless thick client" and "diskless thin client."<br><br>A thin client is basically a video device that allows you to see what is<br>running on a server. With thin clients, all of the processing occurs on<br>the server, the video is sent over the network and simply displayed by<br>the client. Above a certain point, extra power in a thin client is just<br>wasted. The nice thing about thin clients is that you can upgrade a<br>whole lab just by upgrading the server. Also thin clients tend to have<br>effective lifetimes of several years because they have few, if any,<br>moving parts and don't need more processing power as applications become<br>more intensive.<br><br>A diskless thick client is a computer that downloads its operating<br>system and applications from a central server, but runs the applications<br>itself. The major advantage is that, because the applications are run<br>locally, not on the server, one server can accommodate many more<br>clients. Also, video doesn't need to be sent down to each client, so the<br>network demands are considerably smaller than with thin clients. The<br>major disadvantage is that the client must be powerful enough to run the<br>applications--considerably more powerful than a typical thin client.<br>Thick clients also tend to have shorter life expectancies than thin<br>clients, because they must be upgraded to keep up with the increasing<br>demands of more complicated software. On the other hand, having a really<br>powerful server with thick clients isn't as important as long as it has<br>relatively quick disk access.<br><br>HTH,<br>Todd<br><br></div></div><br></div></div><br> <hr size=1>Shape Yahoo! in your own image. <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=48517/*http://surveylink.yahoo.com/gmrs/yahoo_panel_invite.asp?a=7">Join our Network Research Panel today!</a> </body></html>