From: "C. Ulrich" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Lee Mx <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Changing a company from 100% Windows to 100% FreeBSD. Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 15:48:24 -0500
On Mon, 2003-11-17 at 09:27, Lee Mx wrote: > I am switching about 40 desktop's running different versions of > windows over to freebsd. One of the primary requirements is > OpenOffice-1.1 and I've always run it locally on my laptop. > I'm considering running it over the LAN which would mean that > I suppose that I would NFS mount the binary and do the network > install. Could someone who has done this tell me if they > recommend running it on the network or if it would be better to > just install it on each of the 40 machines. This company and > every user, uses Office daily, especially excel.
I've never done this, but OpenOffice is such a large application that this might not be such a swell idea. On my Athlon 750 with U2W SCSI, OpenOffice 1.1 takes 20 seconds to load from the hard disk. I couldn't guess how long it would take trying to pull it over the network, but I'm sure it would be a lot longer. Also take into consideration the fact that, unless your office is very well funded, you're probably don't have the newest equipment. If this is the case, you could consider running all the desktops as local thin clients. When a user logs in, they're really just logging in remotely to an application server where all the real work work is done.
I would love to do that, but I have no idea where to start although Adrian was kind enough to send be a couple of links, I'm not sure I get it yet. If you have any other tips/links etc. they would sure be appreciated.
Sounds great to me in my ignorance.:-)
Advantages: - you only have to regularly maintain the application servers - "outdated" hardware works just fine for the thin clients as everything is run on the server - users access their data and do their work from any machine (also reduces "my machine" syndrome common in some workplaces)
Disadvantages: - Allowing users to save things to floppy or CD could be slightly problematic (ditto for playing video and sound) - if all 40 desktops are in the same office/area, you'll probably have to set up more than one application servers and work out a solution for load-balancing and keeping them in sync - if your users use large apps like OpenOffice, you might need pretty hefty servers, especially in the memory department. However, it will still be less memory than what would be required to run OpenOffice locally on all 40 machines
The client/server approach may not end up being the best solution for your specific situation, but at least it's something to think about. I've always heard good things from those who've implemented similar solutions in their organizations.
Thanks, Charles. It is certainly something to think about and test.
lee
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