On Sun, 28 Apr 2002, John McCreesh wrote:
> This is a good list. I would add that you need some way of supporting MS-Windoze
>apps in 'ghetto' mode. There are many niche apps out there that are only available
>under MS-Windoze. Sooner or later you have to work out a way of handling them -
>either by having a few pure Windoze machines in a 'ghetto' or set up some way of
>making them avaiable on an window on an LTSP client.
I see no real reason why Windows Terminal Services couldn't do that
sufficiently...especially not with Citrix. It would sure be preferrable
if VNC could be modified to work as a drop-in replacement for Citrix.
As it stands, VNC is really just a remote desktop access utility--not
something designed for full-time desktop use. It needs a little
refinement to be practical. I would enable to to takeover the whole
screen at whatever resolution the server is, so users don't have to scroll
around to get to the far corners.. I'd also touch up its ugly windows and
build an efficient image caching mechanism so that images or parts of
images that are overlaid and then need to be reshown wouldn't have to be
redownloaded.
Companies will find not only being able to use Windows applications useful
but also Mac software or just the ability to put two or more conflicting
or CPU/RAM hungry or unstable Windows applications on separate servers.
I know for a fact that MANY large organizations will take a great interest
in such capabilities.
The fatal experiences I've seen with thin-client deployments at
institutions I have seen has been that the TCO benefits were not realized
due to the following reason: Many applications do not work as reliably
under terminal services as they do on single-user Windows--most
importantly, Microsoft Office. Some Windows applications don't work at
all... And the server running these applications are very high
maintenance.. The more simultaneous clients, the worse things get.
I paid for StarOffice back at version 5.0 and find that the 5.2 version
handles MS Word documents very well, including the graphics. It seems to
me like they broke a few things in the OpenOffice version and it will
take them some time to fix it all. That's understandable being that they
are modifying it to use GNOME desktop componants. Once fixed, the work
will have been well worth it.
Large to medium organizations will find conversion to StarOffice very
difficult as training costs will outweight getting the software for free
and as users are likely to revolt en-mass.
To me, the solutions is obvious.. We simple need local firms to install
and support these solutions--not technology companies across ten states
somewhere. They need local training centers that can offer training and
consulting to support the deployments. In other words, we need a
system of franchises to really deploy these kinds of solutions.
That being the case, I am confident that business will be plentiful and
profit margins high.
Offer the following:
- LTSP terminals w/ Server solution (not clunky old retro-fitted 486
PCs!?@#$)
- Offer a fully functional desktop that can be locked up.
- Offer Windows and Mac integration
- Offer all the applications I'd talked of earlier (down below somewhere)
- Offer retraining services included with a sale in your own local
training facility.
- Offer remote and onsite support: Help Desk, trouble-shooting, and full
systems administration.
- Market with targeted mailings inviting businesmen to technology
demonstrations.. They need to see with their own eyes what the LTSP-based
solution can do. Small businessmen like to see neat tricks and big
businessmen like to see solutions that significantly reduce time and risk
spent on dealing with wide-ranging problems. Both types are very open to
new ideas under such conditions.
--Matthew
>
> John
>
> p.s. At the risk of starting a religious war, I would suggest that
> OpenOffice.org is the only app that meets the office software
> requirements given below.
>
>
> On Sun, 28 Apr 2002 02:05:05 -0700 (PDT)
> mslicker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> >
> > 1. Ensure the utmost in synergistic use of software by ensuring multiple
> > instances of applications share as much as possible rather than loading
> > redundant instances... such as in executible code and cached files
> > (icons, graphics, web pages, etc. etc.)
> >
> > 2. Ensure everything works out of the box. It's better to select one app
> > for each major purpose and ensure it works perfectly and ensure there are
> > help pages for it than to throw in thousands of poorly refined apps as
> > with Mandrake, for example. It should do the following and do it very
> > cleanly and well:
> > a. Wordprocessing (quality MS Word import/export)
> > b. eMail & Groupware (shared calendars, etc.)
> > c. Browing the web (ensure flash, PDF, and real media works! And
> > ensure fonts are OK sized)
> > d. Spreadsheet (quality MS Excel import/export)
> > e. PalmOS synchronization must work
> > f. Database--needs desktop database in leage with MS Access
> > g. Presentation app (quality MS PowerPoint import/export)
> > h. Bitmap graphics application (the Gimp or Photoshop)
> > i. Flow Charting app (Kivio is good)
> > j. Project management app (something somewhat like MS Project)
> >
> > All of the above are listed in order of priority. A through H are
> > critical and the others are just very useful. Unfortunately, no
> > reasonable free alternatives exist for a desktop database or project
> > management. A desktop database is required for all the little
> > departmental database apps used for miscellaneous data tracking/reporting
> > tasks. Project management software such as Microsoft Project is good for
> > project planning and estimation of managers at all levels of an
> > organization but task tracking and queue management is also often needed
> > by organizations..... often integrated with ticket tracking systems that
> > are often web-based--luckilly.
> >
> > --Matthew
> >
> > On Fri, 19 Apr 2002, david scott wrote:
> >
> > > Ok, I know there have been several strange questions
> > > passed by me in the recent past. I need some serious
> > > imput from people in ltsp. At my work we are building
> > > a new distribution of linux. I have been talking with
> > > many other groups of people and It seams like this
> > > will be a incredibly unique version. I will go into
> > > the specs so far if people are interested. However
> > > from a differnt point of view, if you could design a
> > > distribution for linux to have optimum services for
> > > ltsp what would you put into it? Make the server
> > > faster, free up more ram for ltsp, and optimally place
> > > more security into what is already there. If we can
> > > get some input from ltsp and users of ltsp it would be
> > > highly appricated.
> > >
> > > David
>
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