Re: Thin client or linux PC?

On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 21:57, James Rich <james@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I have a customer who is interested in replacing their multiple Windows
PCs with a low maintenance solution.

As far as i know, there is no low maintenance solution. You will
either need to maintain several clients or several thin clients and a
terminal servers. Everything needs to be kept up-to-date and secure.

Moving from desktop based computing to server based computing has
several advantages, and several disadvantages. For example, a terminal
server is a lot more complex than a single computer - if you have an
issue on your terminal server, it can be harder to debug and an outage
will always affect multiple clients.

Then again, terminal servers radically simplify remote access and make
it easier to move from desk to desk.

Could anyone with experience please give recommendations?

Well, this is impossible without knowing a heck a lot more about your
customer. For example, for very small customers with no on-site IT
staff, running multiple stand alone computers is often a better choice
than running a terminal servers.

I've made very good experiences with Igel Thin Clients
(http://www.igel.com/). They offer a comprehensive suite of management
software that allows easy Thin Client management and updates. I've
only used them with Citrix servers though.