Thin Clients

[Soulfish]

Hi everyone,

We may be doing a test deployment of thin clients for 10-30 machines in the next few weeks. From talking to a few suppliers it's obvious that there are a large variety of different options for both the physical devices and the software to run it all.

Does anyone have any recommendations for good makes/models for the hardware? Also what are you all using to run your thin client networks? Terminal Services, VMWare, Citrix? And how are you finding it? Recommendations for solutions would be great

Finally what software have you found can/can't be used on the thin clients?

John

[Ric_]

I'm a Citrix fanboy but the Sun Ray kit is looking incredibly good value for money - so much so I'm looking into using Sun Ray clients for my Citrix installation.

I also like the HP Linux-based thin clients but they aren't as easy to configure as they used to be so I'm going off them.

Then of course you have your Axel thin clients (an EduGeek sponsor no less).

The Cutter Project (PM Linescanner) will be able to give you options and excellent deals on the Sun stuff.

[Axel]

Thanks Ric....

John,

We'd be happy to send you terminal to have a play with....

The key differentiator of the Axel product is that it does not have any operating system. This makes it it higher in performance, lower in power consumption (5w), and easier to setup and remotely manage.

It is the size of a cigarette box and comes with a bracket to attach to rear of monitor (VESA)

See various recent comments in:

Axel AX3000 m70 for Lesson Monitor

AXEL: request a demo unit from Axel Ltd.

[dhicks]

Recommendations for solutions would be great

Download Edubuntu, install it on a server, plug in some thin clients (or random old PCs, whatever you have spare) and away you go. If you insist on using Windows then NComputing's system works with Windows Server, £300 for half a dozen workstations, you just need to supply 1 server and 6 monitors.

--
David Hicks

[ASJ]

We are about to do a proof of concept using Citrix Xendesktop and all that goes with it using Jack PC as the thin client.

[Ric_]

We are about to do a proof of concept using Citrix Xendesktop and all that goes with it using Jack PC as the thin client.

I did look at the JackPC clients but I found the TCO to be a bit poor when you take the infrastructure requirements into account (i.e. shed loads of PoE swithces).

It's also worth mentioning that Mitel and Sun have an 'alliance' where by you can log into the terminal and phone at once... I'm currently looking at doing this... rather sexy as phone systems go!

[nut-ed]

...we looked at Chippc about a year ago but didn't go with it as then they only had Windows CE offerings, which was slow at screen refreshing compared to the alternatives.

They also wanted to charge for the management software, making the overall solution a pricey.....

[LordGrey]

Here at Lord Grey we have been running Thin Clients for 10 years! Now got almost 800 desktops in total with over 600 being Thin Client. Feel free to email john.chambers@lordgrey.org.uk for more details or send me a telephone number & we can sort out a chat or visit if you require.

We use a company called Precedence Technologies, as support and hardware providers, who have been in the 'Thin' education market for over 10 years and support at least 300 schools as far as I know!

We have tried a number and found these the most reliable and configurable.

[ASJ]

I did look at the JackPC clients but I found the TCO to be a bit poor when you take the infrastructure requirements into account (i.e. shed loads of PoE swithces).

It's also worth mentioning that Mitel and Sun have an 'alliance' where by you can log into the terminal and phone at once... I'm currently looking at doing this... rather sexy as phone systems go!

Yup can totally see that. We however are starting from scratch and the Chips are just the ticket for our boarding houses. An increase in the infrastructure of the network is long overdue as well.

[ASJ]

...we looked at Chippc about a year ago but didn't go with it as then they only had Windows CE offerings, which was slow at screen refreshing compared to the alternatives.

They also wanted to charge for the management software, making the overall solution a pricey.....

They have just released their "new" version that now runs a linux flavour. This also of-loads multimedia to the local device rather than on the virtual desktop. We seem to have got a good deal with Chip regarding their software. After seeing it work, Xcaliber really works well at what it does.

[dknappett]

Here at Lord Grey we have been running Thin Clients for 10 years! Now got almost 800 desktops in total with over 600 being Thin Client. Feel free to email john.chambers@lordgrey.org.uk for more details or send me a telephone number & we can sort out a chat or visit if you require.

We use a company called Precedence Technologies, as support and hardware providers, who have been in the 'Thin' education market for over 10 years and support at least 300 schools as far as I know!

We have tried a number and found these the most reliable and configurable.

We use the same ones here too on our Citrix installation for about half of the computers in the school. They're so easy to install as they pick up settings from a central point - all you have to do is set the host name and you're away!

I've looked at offerings from iGel, but whilst they are nice, they're not as good as the ones from Precedence.

Again, happy to provide more info.

[linescanner]

Sun Ray is a very good option here also. Well worth a look at

[Ric_]

Yup can totally see that. We however are starting from scratch and the Chips are just the ticket for our boarding houses. An increase in the infrastructure of the network is long overdue as well.

My point about the infrastructure 'problem' was the PoE requirement. It's still expensive to invest in PoE on that scale.

Matching grant Sun Rays (the deal is terminal, keyboard, mouse and monitor) is well under £200 so that can't be sniffed at. You need a server or two but but some common sense allows you to configure most of the gear yourself. I'm waiting for my new budget to get some Sun Ray hardware but I think my XenServer infrasture iws now set up to handle a few clients - testing is all it reuires.

[localzuk]

My point about the infrastructure 'problem' was the PoE requirement. It's still expensive to invest in PoE on that scale.

Matching grant Sun Rays (the deal is terminal, keyboard, mouse and monitor) is well under £200 so that can't be sniffed at. You need a server or two but but some common sense allows you to configure most of the gear yourself. I'm waiting for my new budget to get some Sun Ray hardware but I think my XenServer infrasture iws now set up to handle a few clients - testing is all it reuires.

PoE isn't as expensive as it seems. A 24 port PoE midspan injector is £245 from CMS. Just over a tenner per terminal.