RE: PC Headache (was Ethernet to twinax adapter?)

PC's get viruses and spyware and are support headaches.  They also allow
non-work related enticements like surfing the I.  This is esp true with
older
PC's.  Warehouses beat up terminals and PC's.  Keyboards notoriously fail. 
There's lots of dust, dirt, and banging around.

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Guess it depends on your setup. In my experience, PCs are only a headache if
you allow them to be.

They can only surf the web if you explictely configure them to be able.
Otherwise it just isn't possible. You have to set a default route, DNS, etc.
If they *have* to use an app thats out on the web, all you have to do is
just add the route for that one server to the 'ROUTES' file, and that one
server's IP address to the 'HOSTS' file, and that's the one place they will
ever reach. And if they can't get to the web, they can't get spyware.

Games and such are easily uninstalled.

Desktop profiles can be configured on *every* release of windows since 95,
and they will stop *anything* that you want stopped. (software installation,
configuration changes, etc, etc.) In fact, you only need *one* profile,
stored on *one* server for *all* the PCs you want locked down. Or better
yet, don't provide *any* routing info, and only allow them access to the web
through a proxy on your lan that you can control.

Viruses can be stopped cold by scanning email before its delivered to users.
A decent package with automatically updated detection rules will work
wonders.

Keyboards are not only extremely cheap, but easily protected with an even
cheaper keyboard cover. Keyboards can be cleaned with plain old soap and
water, as long as they are dried before you plug them back in of course.
Even gooey pop spills come off easily enough with a nice soak in a warm
bath. 

We've had PCs on the warehouse floor for many years, and have yet to lose
one to a forklift, dirt, or temperatures which vary between 0 and 105
throughout the year. In fact, the only failures we've had are dead
hard-drives (usually after 5-6 years), dead BIOS batteries (cheap and easily
replaceable), and dead power supplies (also 5-6 years on average.).

In fact, our standard installation these days consists of a PC and printer
on a cart with an RF Hub. Users wheel them off to wherever it is convenient
for themselves, and we don't worry about it. We have them for a couple of
hours to setup software, profiles, etc. And then we don't see them again
until the hardware fails. 

We spend many, many times the money, effort, and time on printer
maintenance/repair (And we buy nothing but IBM. :( ) than we do on PC
support. And we have 10 times as many PCs as printers.

This isn't to say that a dumb-terminal wouldn't be quicker/easier to
install, but the 'PCs are unstable and dangerous' rag is based on a lot of
assumptions that just aren't true in every organization.