Riddler Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 I recently started a new job and I have been a strong advocate for end users to use linux because their interface is primarily web. They wouldn't see a tremendous difference in their daily chores. My boss took it a step further and is suggesting a thin client solution for the users. He would like to use a red hat server, and TS into a windows server (basically an app server). Does anyone have an suggestions? We are currently using Windows 2000 and 2003 servers along with a Novell Groupwise server for e-mail. I really appreciate yall's suggestions. [moved from Talk-Talk by spinynorman] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fissy Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 doing a graphical login into one computer so that you can do a graphical login into another computer sounds incredibly slow. What programs do you need to run on the windows server? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riddler Posted December 21, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 Well I think my supervisor simply isn't ready to move from M$ Office, bandwidth isn't really a problem though. Also their is may come in the future industry specific software that isn't Linux compatible. But for the most part we won't need to TS into another computer just run a browser and connect to the intranet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamw Posted December 22, 2004 Report Share Posted December 22, 2004 So your boss is suggesting this setup? Thin client -> RH box -> Windows terminal server There's no point in that, really. If your boss isn't willing to go with Linux exclusively, just have the thin clients connect direct to the Windows terminal server. I can't think of any benefits you'd get by sticking an RH box in the middle when there's still a Windows box above it to stuff things up... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riddler Posted December 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2004 Well the thin client will have an embedded version of linux, and according to him and who he's been talking to at Dell we would also need a RH Server this server would host all of TS sessions into a windows server. I'm just wondering if anyone has seen the embedded linux and if anyone has setup one of these servers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted December 22, 2004 Report Share Posted December 22, 2004 Ive done a lot and a lot of testing... The bottom line is for windows apps citrix is best.. either from linux or windows but TO a Windows server! The best parts of citrix are really very low level Windows stuff, and M$ ofice etc. works better because M$ have the code! For instance Lotus notes doesn't work so well! Depending on users though (cost) tarantella works great, especially for users and it can be used to a M$ terminal server. IMHO if you are doing this just forget it and use the Citrix server! If you want unix/linux then tarantella rocks... and if you want 90% *nix then perhaps a Win terminal server is a good idea if you simply must have it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fissy Posted December 22, 2004 Report Share Posted December 22, 2004 Riddler, you don't need a RH box in the middle, Dell probably just want to sell you a server. You just need this installed on each linux client: http://www.nongnu.org/grdesktop/shots.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannonfodder Posted December 23, 2004 Report Share Posted December 23, 2004 Didn't Novell just buy Suse? There's an article interviewing the company CEO, in Linux Magazine for Aug 2004. Since you guys use Novell, you may want to work with a distro that is going to be enhanced/managed by Novell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riddler Posted December 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2004 That's one option we were considering, I really appreciate all of yall input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted December 24, 2004 Report Share Posted December 24, 2004 What BW/latency ? Do you want dial-in access or LAN only? Do you need to run any 3D accelerated stuff (openGL?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riddler Posted December 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2004 Lan only and most likely not 3D Accelerated stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riddler Posted December 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2004 I received more information........ The reason we would have a Red Hat Server is for the thin clients to network boot and the Red Hat server will be a PXE Server holding the "image" and rolling it out every time the thin clients boot. Does anyone have any experience with this? Success or Failure? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted December 30, 2004 Report Share Posted December 30, 2004 Not on linux but Solaris... I find it more hassle than its worth to be honest... Its more a way to dumb down users ... the dedicated thin clients don't cost much different to a normal PC... and basically you are just saving a disk and a few peripherals but then you loose the flexibility of one having different software without a whole load of hassle... I have a friend did this for a few hundred users on different sites and i think it was sucessful in terms of licensing costs etc. and locking down users... I would say it depends largely on what you want to achieve ... with regard to users and longer term planning. I.e. If you are easing towards a non M$ solution or just lookibng for a one shot saver? At the end of the day office liscences are expensive and will be your major cost... and the biggest problem is likely to be user acceptance rather than technical... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riddler Posted December 30, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2004 You pretty much hit the nail on the head, with a non M$ client not only are licensing costs fewer but virus threats are fewer also. As far as dumbing down the users go it's pretty much been already implemented. We have a few site that hold all of their specialized apps (excluding office) and with this solution hopefully it would make our life easier. Your friend and yourself when you tried to implement this, where did you find the documentation or was there none. Is there anyway that you could send me what you have as far as documentation, if you can I will post my e-mail for you thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aRTee Posted December 30, 2004 Report Share Posted December 30, 2004 I have used the Mandrake draktermserv, try this to see how you like the whole setup before forking out the money for the Dell/RH setup, to make sure you really want this. Stew Benedict did most of the work behind draktermserv, and he actually responds to email about it. I set up this server at work to help my colleagues boot Lin instead of some other OS. Basically, they were running as 'fat clients', just booting over the network (NBI) and mounting the host filesystem. 50 secs to start OOo (50MB) over a 10Mb/s line (upgraded to 100Mb/s in the meantime), but other than that all was fine. You may be able to find some more info on what I did via my website, I never got around to writing a review but I mentioned and described quite a bit on the site log (front page, scroll down), this past year around summertime. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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