Skip to main content

Clin thients

Visited a customerish yesterday, in Wynyard. From the description, I was expecting a big mess of Win98 & XP systems, but it seems that they’re a little more organised (sorta), than that.

“Sorta”?

Well, the actual organisation revolves around two servers, which are remote-managed. They wear the princely titles of “server” & “server1”

One of them is a Windows file-server, the other is a terminal server. Oddly enough, the backups etc are done through the terminal server, since the tape backup unit doesn’t work on the file-server, & the USB interface works poorly, if at all.

The positive aspect from the workstations’ perspective is that they’re all, basically, thin clients. The users start them, start an RDP client, & do all of their work via the terminal server.

I gather that this was done for convenience of administration, since the admin (in Devonport, apparently) doesn’t need to ensure that workstations are clocked on or whatever, just has to start a session for the user in question, & admin that.

Now, the whole arrangement just cries out for a standard Unix-like setup (X was born for this) — but there are a few show-stoppers like MYOB in the works.

Nevertheless, I’m planning to swap their standard PCs plus a few special-purpose RDP client boxes for dead-boring standard PCs which boot a Linux image (so conceptually could be replaced by a live CD) that starts dear old rdesktop aimed at the terminal server.

They’re a kind of a charity, so $$$ are quite important, as is chopping away any extra organisation needed for obtaining specialised equipment. With my grand plan in place, they can grab a bargain PC, whip out the hard disk (if any), shove a CD into it, & be on the road immediately. No licence hassles, no special cases.

Comments

Stephen Thorne said…
I saw thinlinx.com.au at an open source breakfast last week. They look interesting.
sen said…
Be careful saying stuff like that, they will need new licences for the Terminal Services CAL plus software etc.
Plus the way M$ charge for M$Office on a TS box is every user must have a lic for Office if it's accessible by them. Even if they don't use it.
Licences can become quite pricey by the time you finish counting that up.
Leon RJ Brooks said…
AFAICT they already have said licences & no wish to suffer the same pain again.

With this in mind, they're likely to try a few users out on OpenOffice to see if it works "well enough" & if so, they'll migrate more users until they have zero left.

If it wasn't for MYOB, I think they'd be quite happy running Linux throughout.
Leon RJ Brooks said…
BTW, should have said (about whipping the hard disk out) that the LiveCD would, once startup was successful, check the machine & offer to install on it if appropriate.
sen said…
MYOB runs pretty well on WINE apparently:
http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iVersionId=355&iTestingId=11136

Also I've heard that Crossover office multi-user (terminal service version) works as well.

Oh and I'm not sure if you saw this, but Novel is forking OO, they don't like that SUN wont LGPL it.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/03/1212234

Popular posts from this blog

every-application-is-part-of-a-toolkit at work

I have a LibreOffice Impress slideshow that I wish to turn into a narrated video. 1. export the slideshow as PNG images (if that is partially broken — as at now — at higher resolutions, Export Directly as PDF then use ‘pdftoppm’ (from the poppler-utils package) to do the same). 2. write a small C program (63 lines including comments) to display those images one at a time, writing a config file entry for Imagination (default transition: ‘cross fade’) based on when the image-viewer application (‘display,’ from the GraphicsMagick suite) is closed on each one; run that, read each image aloud, then close each image in turn. 3. run ‘Imagination’ over the config file to produce a silent MP4 video with the correct timings. 4. run ‘Audacity’ to record speech while using ‘SMPlayer’ to display the silent video, then export that recording as a WAV file. 4a. optionally, use ‘TiMIDIty’ to convert a non-copyright-encumbered MIDI tune to WAV, then import that and blend it with the speech (as a quiet b

boundaries

pushing the actual boundaries of the physical (not extremes, the boundaries themselves) can often remove barriers not otherwise perceived. one can then often resolve an issue itself, rather than merely stonewalling at the physical consequences of the issue.

new life for an old (FTX) PSU, improved life for one human

the LEDs on this 5m strip happen to emit light centred on a red that does unexpectedly helpful things to (and surprisingly deeply within) a human routinely exposed to it. it has been soldered to a Molex connector, plugged into a TFX power supply from a (retired: the MoBo is cactus) Small Form Factor PC, the assorted PSU connectors (and loose end from the strip) have been taped over. the LED strip cost $10.24 including postage, the rest cost $0, the PSU is running at 12½% of capacity, consumes less power than a laptop plug-pack despite running a fan. trial runs begin today.