Hi,
Thanks to all the folks who gave useful feedback to help me find a suitable
thin client for my business' needs. I just finished taking iTalc on a test
drive. iTalc is quite literally a beautiful educational tool. I wanted to
use the power of computers to visually explain concepts but yet didn't want
to put up an economically and energy-wise expensive projector or a fancy
large screen TV. iTalc filled that very need by providing a means to
control and transmit to the desktops of the LTSP clients.
My needs were:
1. GNU/Linux friendly thin clients that work in an LTSP environment.
2. Low on power consumption: saves power bill, saves cooling needs, cut
down need for a big UPS.
3. Low on desktop foot print: Thin, Small, Simplicity is what I was looking
for. Simply because I don't have a very large space.
4. Self Maintainable (ie,. no
horribly-designed-products-with-3-year-warranty).
5. Gigabit - just so I can be happy to know the network is not my
bottleneck.
What I reviewed:
1. Ncomputing: Bound to their proprietary software - sucks to be forced to
use non-LTSP. But Ncomputing was way cheaper and it did "lure" me since
they are known to "support Linux".
2. Userful: Super simple, Beautiful, Works with most - but I got skeptical
and leaned away.
3. Panache: Awesome line up of products though, most cost effective thin
clients are proprietary. No way to get a look and feel - gotta order and be
happy with whatever I find. I didn't like this very aspect. The good part
about panache was its openness in letting folks purchase their cabinets
alone. But their cabinets are about 2 times more expensive than the
cheapest vanilla Rs.900/- cabinet.
4. Used PC: I tried. I gave up because I didn't want to be living with a
nightmarish infrastructure made up of a diverse mix of PCs of all sizes,
ages and makes. Plus, most of them came with stuff I didn't want - like
hard drives or an AGP. But all disadvantages aside, this seemed to me to be
the most cost effective route- I could have gotten a box-monitor based
setup for Rs.5000/- but that saving will swell other running costs.
5. DIY thin client: I so wanted to do it. but I wasn't sure I was going to
find the time. Little did I know, though, that this route will consume 3
man days in finding the truth behind excellent sounding sales promises by
just about every vendor on Ritchie St.
The review:
IMO: All the factory made products didn't score on the price and the
maintainability front, except Zotac's ID-series. But its availability in
India was a problem. Used PCs weighed low on all my needs except that of
self maintainability and low cost. DIY seemed like the only choice left to
be explored... and this exploration is more than just calling up people ;)
So I was left with the bar on power consumption and foot print. The only
way forward was to come up with the configuration and shop for suitable
cabinets that are small and available in the market for closer inspection.
This is what I ended up with after arriving at Chennai and loitering around
Ritchie St for 3 days.
Thin client configuration:
- Intel D425KT
- 2G DDR3
- 15.6" LED TV
- Zebronics Genesis "slim" cabinet
- KB+Mouse
The cost of this setup turned out to be about Rs.9,100/- though if one
wasn't as specific about desktop space usage or energy usage, a setup as
cheap as Rs.6,000/- could have been achieved using old CRTs instead of the
LED that sank 3.3K.
The server and its karma:
The LTSP server used to be a Home Audio Studio DAW in its previous birth.
I chose this because this was the best box I had on hand. I chose edubuntu
11.04 because LTSP worked out of the box (My erstwhile studio sports an i5
Quad core with a DH57DD motherboard. I upgraded this rig to add 8G more RAM
and bought two new 500G SATA 2 drives for RAID).
I also test drove the power of the jack audio framework and realized it is
possible to use LTSP to _do_ stuff like what real studios do (one person
doing the drums, one singing, another doing the bass, another playing a
real instrument and one mixing it all together live. One Helluva Free
Software Orchestra it can be. Who wants to jam? ;)
Cheers,
-Suraj
--
Career Gear - Industry Driven Talent Factory
http://careergear.in/
