vermonttechie

You underscored my point exactly regarding WLMM. WLMM is a new version that will allow multiple users to run at the same time. It is modified to run using the fast user switch hack, or so I'm told. MovieMaker will not run multiple times on the same operating system. Neither would CCC, or Compass, or SuccessMaker, or ClassWorks, or Read180, etc. Whether they are good pieces of software or not, they are what we (and many other schools) have to use. They run fine on a normal Windows XP or Windows 7 PC, or a Fiddlehead PC, BUT NOT ON A THIN CLIENT, or MPS, or nComputing, or anything else that uses one operating system shared by multiple users. I'm not trying to say what is better, or worse, it's just that everyone is comparing their product to everyone else's product. That is fine, but none of them run just like a real PC... except a real PC, and Fiddlehead. That is my point. They are not like a real PC. They all have only one IP address, one MAC address, they can't get some applications to run, security issues because of the sharing of .ini and .dll files across users, problems with USB device security and attachment. ...on and on. I wish we didn't need good multimedia, nor did we need applications that ran on Microsoft. But we do! If we didn't, I would just run LTSP and be done with it.:)

You might want to look at true desktop virtualization. Fiddlehead at Fiddlehead: Desktop Virtualization PC Sharing Technology for Schools has a really easy to integrate solution.

We run HD video's, MovieMaker, and now 3D on Fiddlehead. We also run 4 users on a Core I7 running MicroStation with 3D rendering. We can get 2 cores per user with 4 users, or 4 cores with 2 users. I tell you, it's just like a real PC. MPS 2010 doesn't even have MovieMaker available. Download it, and try to get more than one user to run. Anyway, I tried to buy some nComputing enabled monitors for my nComputing set up I have and they told me I couldn't return them. They only work on the nComputing system and won't work as regular monitors if the nComputing system doesn't work for them. One operating system, many users just isn't going to fly with Microsoft, so you are stuck with server based software like TS, Citrix, or (now) MPS 2010.

Someone mentioned Fiddlehead. I have spent the last 10 years trying to get thin clients to work in schools and Fiddlehead is the only one that really works like a real PC. Browsing the internet is one thing that works OK with thin clients, Microsoft Office or other low multimedia content applications are in a similar boat. But when it comes to the multitude of weird, multimedia intense, one-off school applications we have, nComputing, MultiPoint, softXpand, Wyse, Citrix, TS, etc. just don't work! Fiddlehead does. The REAL problem for us is that each and every one of them have one installation of the operating system and thus one instance of the application. Although multimedia runs substantially better on softXpand than anything else, and the DisplayLink stuff as you see with the U series nComputing and the T100 HP thin clients don't allow real 3D multimedia even though they are easy to set up, none of them can launch a 2nd instance of MovieMaker, or CCC, or Read180, or Compass, or Successmaker (correct me if some of them are running now). Regarding FH licensing, any school that uses SA or VECD can use the Vista (and now Windows 7) virtualization brief and the price is next to nothing. Fiddlehead has all of the green, sustainable "stuff" that all of the others have, AND it is JUST LIKE A REGULAR PC. The new DisplayPort PC's don't even require extra video cards. It is not designed, nor priced (I would guess) to compete with thin clients, or multiSeat solutions. It probably shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath with them. It is just like a regular PC. Regarding FH getting bought...since we are a pretty good size site in the NE, I can't tell you how many companies have contacted us asking about our experience. They claim they are doing due diligence process. I can tell you that none of them are small.