Ahmet; The short answer is: Windows CE.
Windows CE provides a subset of MS Windows that works in terminals that boot from flash for a thin terminal solution. There are several caveats, though - Ken Cobler has mentioned the big ones and more are detailed below. Windows CE was originally meant to provide terminal capabilities, where you would run a MS or Citrix client program terminal to access applications on servers elsewhere in the network. The Windows CE runtime is usually in flash memory on the terminal, and can be updated using a modified tftp protocol. Note that this update requires a server on the local network, since it downloads the update before booting completely. Terminals can boot without a server, but the software load in each terminal must be maintained. Software is available for remotely managing this software load. This setup requires server hardware, licenses for MS Server, MS Terminal Server/Citrix, and application software (usually at least MS Office). This is all on a per-user basis (except Citrix floating licenses). Check the cost of the software for managing the terminal loads. You may find that the total sticker price will be comparable to your $1000 per Windows machine quoted earlier. People tend to focus on up-front costs, but you should also bring up the TCO over years of expected service. The Microsoft licenses require annual payments. There's also management of the server and software loads on the terminals. If terminals and servers are all connected by a single high-speed LAN, remote sessions work well. When accessing sessions over a WAN from remote locations, session response times are *HUGELY* affected by WAN latency and congestion. On the other hand ... LTSP offers an excellent solution for your proposed environment - viewing web based documentation. It can use terminals that don't require maintenance of an internal software load. You can use more generic terminal equipment: New PXE boot clients, Jammin-125s or even old PCs destined for the scrap heap. Most objections that I have seen melt away when the decision makers get "hands on" experience with LTSP. I suggest composing a simple GUI with a familiar interface (IceWM, XP theme and pre-loaded application buttons). Hope this helps, Tom -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thomas L. Griffing Red Hat Certified Engineer Pondus Solutions, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: IBM Linux Tutorials. Become an expert in LINUX or just sharpen your skills. Sign up for IBM's Free Linux Tutorials. Learn everything from the bash shell to sys admin. Click now! http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=1278&alloc_id=3371&op=click _____________________________________________________________________ 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.freenode.net
