Help required to identify a product.

[mrwobbly]

One of my primary schools has asked me about a system they have heard about. It is a base unit computer that connects up to up to eight monitors, keyboards and mice. It sounds like a self contained thin client like solution for up to eight users.

 

Has anyone got any idea who produces it and where I can find out some more information? I’ve heard of it but can’t think where.

[john]

Miniframe UK - The UK home of ecological computing is what you are looking for I think

[mrwobbly]

Multiseat computing

 

I new I'd heard of it. I couldn't think of the term to describe it.

 

Many thanks for your help.

[Will1976]

Hi

 

I think you are looking for NComputting - It does 11 Units from 1 host....

 

I know a lot of schools use this as a mini network.

[Andie]

I chatted to a company at E2BN conference that were demonstrating this kind of thing. Company called Xtranet IT, and the product is SoftXpand. Allows one workstation to run 6 monitors doing 6 different things. Part of their green computing solution. Link below:

 

SoftXpand

 

They do a 30 day no obligation trial, apparently.

Edited October 26, 2009 by Andie

[Ric_]

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/hardware/18657-softxpand-miniframe.html?highlight=ncomputing might give you some more information. AFAIK, a definitive answer was never found to the question about breaking the Windows EULA by running multiple users at once on a single-user OS.

[apoth0r]

PARS deal with NComputing, would be nice if you contact them to say you heard it from NorthantsIT.co.uk too

 

All the best

[mrwobbly]

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/hardware/18657-softxpand-miniframe.html?highlight=ncomputing might give you some more information. AFAIK, a definitive answer was never found to the question about breaking the Windows EULA by running multiple users at once on a single-user OS.

 

Thanks Ric,

 

I read through that thread at the weekend.

 

Some interesting and varied input

[nut-ed]

If you just do a google on "multi user XP" you will find the registery hacks to open up standard XP to multi users - ie when the second user RDPs onto the PC, the first user is left undisturbed. You don't need to "buy" a software product for this and most old PCs can be configured to run RDP easily enough....

 

But as Ric says, this would probably be operating outside the Microsoft license agreement. If you think about it, what possible motivation would MS have to allowing multiple users to access a single XP machine simultaineously. If it were legal it would pretty much compromise their terminal services product, which is one of their main strategic products...

 

If Microsoft did allow this - wouldn't they give the us tools to do it - and charge us...?

[Ric_]

If Microsoft did allow this - wouldn't they give the us tools to do it - and charge us...?

 

Microsoft do offer a way of doing this through their VECD licensing... see http://www.microsoft.com/windows/enterprise/solutions/virtualization/licensing.aspx

 

It may be a slightly different way of implementing it but in the end it is a way of allowing multiple instances of Windows to run on a single piece of hardware.