On Sun, 2002-09-15 at 07:34, narayanan viswanathan wrote: > > Hi all, > > I have configured the diskless workstation and at present > it is running nicely with linux as the OS. Now I have an > NT Server also and I want my diskless workstation to run > NT OS instead of Linux. Is it possible? If possible please > let me know what is the procedure involved.
I started off trying to answer this question. However, I can see four different interpretations, and I've wound up with something that sounds more like an invitation to discuss the merits of LTSP. I would like to hear what people think about this, especially on any mistakes I've made. Here are four different answers to your question: 1. You want to run Windows programs under LTSP: You can do this with Wine. Wine is included in several distributions. However, it can't run all Windows programs, so sometimes #2 or #3 is necessary. 2. You want LTSP workstations to connect to a Windows Terminal Server: Use rdesktop. You can find this with Google. You can get Windows TSE from your local Microsoft dealer. 3. You want to use LTSP workstations with Citrix: Use the Citrix ICA. You can get this from Citrix.com when you buy the Citrix server. 4. You want to boot Windows over the network on diskless workstations. This is a bad idea; don't do it. Compared to simply installing Windows on regular PCs, you won't save money, it will take more time to set up, and it's more complicated to keep working. Linux supports remote displays natively. In other words, all components needed for LTSP (or a similar setup) exist in almost any Linux distribution. The software and protocols used are public, well documented, and freely available. NT does not support remote displays natively. If you want remote displays with any Microsoft server, you need a special version of Windows (Windows Terminal Server Edition) or a special program (Citrix). These use proprietary protocols to communicate with the clients. Windows isn't designed for use on diskless workstations and makes assumptions that aren't true in this kind of system. Remember that Windows' roots lie in the Disk Operating System; it's designed to make full use of disks. The LTSP software was designed from the kernel up to work in RAM as much as possible, reducing dependency on the disk images on the server Second, you won't save anything with licensing. Linux licenses are free (you pay for support, not the right to run it), but Microsoft requires you to pay a fee for each machine, even diskless ones. Third, LTSP will run on very low-end hardware while Windows requires far more powerful (and by extension, more expensive) hardware. Fourth, LTSP centralizes administration. Booting Windows over the network will let you centralize somewhat, but not nearly as much as LTSP. Fifth, I believe network bandwidth requirements are higher. However, my experience with this is several years old, and it's possible that Microsoft has improved things. Would someone with more recent experience booting Windows over a network please confirm or deny this? If you must have local Windows on the desktops, just installing Windows on each machine is the least expensive option. However, given that Windows TSE will work with LTSP, I can't see why you might need this. -David ------------------------------------------------------- This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek Welcome to geek heaven. http://thinkgeek.com/sf _____________________________________________________________________ Ltsp-discuss mailing list. To un-subscribe, or change prefs, goto: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ltsp-discuss For additional LTSP help, try #ltsp channel on irc.openprojects.net
