Ok you asked for it so here it is starting from the very very basics.
Firstly you need to understand that the X-Window System is a *network* window system. It allows an application to be run on one computer but have it's output (graphical display) and input (mouse and keyboard) sent and received from/to another computer. Whilst most installations these days have the X-client an X-server on the same box, it doesn't have to be that way. This is old hat and has been around since the 1980's.
But just to refresh your memory.... An X-server is an software/hardware combination that provides a Screen/mouse/Keyboard "service" to an X-Client which is an application that needs those services. The X-Server runs on the users desktop. A dedicated piece of hardware that only runs an X-server is refered to as an X-Terminal. The X-client runs on some grunty machine traditionally kept in one of those old fashioned cold rooms with a raised floor with lots of messy cabling underneath. Remember the terms client and server appear to be swapped compared with most other computing configurations.
LTSP is a collection of software and configuration scripts that allow you to turn a PC [1] into an X-terminal. It does this by interupting the boot sequence of the PC and re-directing it to boot off the network. The PC receives an IP address from a DHCP server and downloads its kernel from a server via tftp. Once the kernel is downloaded into the memory of the PC it fires up and then uses NFS to attach a Read only file system over the net from the server to provide the "root" file system for the workstation. It creates a temporary "disk" system in the ram of the PC which is writable and is where the PC sends it's logs. I.E we have a diskless computer that has loaded it's operating system from a server on the network rather than from it's local disk. Thus we can remove the disks and the noise and power usage etc from the PC (but we don't have to).
After the workstation boots it usually is configured to start an X-server. The X-server requests a login screen via xdmcp from the network. This usually comes from the grunty maching hiding in the cold room where your account and software applications reside. I.E we have turned our PC into an X-terminal.
So now you have the basics. Any Unix machine with a screen mouse and keyboard is already an X-server. Any Unix machine with applications on it is already an X-Client. You said that you had Sun machines, thus you can already make the most grunty one the application server and use all the others as workstations (X-terminals booted from their local hard-disk) you don't need LTSP. Or you could decide to boot the Sun-workstations from the network using LTSP, or you could decide to replace or augment your Sun-applcation server with a i386 Linux application server, or, or, or....the combinations are endless. What is it that you really want to achieve? Most people that use LTSP are doing so because it allows them to only have one or two computers where the software and applications are maintained and managed and they can use cheap hardware (or recycled PC's that Bill has veto'd as too slow to run his latest versions of software) as the uses desktops.
HTH
Pete
[1] or a Mac or basically any hardware platform that is capable of booting via it's network card, and that you can compile a Linux kernel for.
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