"Hello openthinclient world."
In December of 2010 I will be heading to Nairobi to help set up a computer
lab for poor slum kids from Nairobi, Kenya (www.shelterofhopekenya.com is
who I am helping). Our IT guy suggested I look into a "thinclient" solution.
Is anyone willing to share their thoughts after reading about what we are
trying to do. If openthinclient works well, we would use it in other places
around the world and also promote "openthinclient" as part of the project.
The goal of these labs is to accomplish the following:
1.) Train slum kids in the following areas: basic computer skills, desktop
publishing skills, web design, etc..
2.) Enable poor adults in and around the Nairobi slums to earn money by
doing various tasks on computers in the lab.
3.) Promote self sustainable labs by selling "time-on-the-computers" to
people who want to browse the web, write letters, etc..
Like anyone else, we immediately wondered how we could keep the cost of lab
hardware/software down while still building a lab that we can teach modern
software applications on (i.e. Adobe desktop publishing applications,
graphic design, etc...).
I am completely new to thin clients but after only an hour or two of
browsing I see some benefits:
1.) Non moving parts means they can take some abuse from the
public/students.
2.) Less heat generated than a room full of laptops or desktops
3.) Much cheaper to buy/ship across the atlantic from US to Kenya
4.) Less stuff to break or steal.
QUESTIONS:
(0) What is the basic level of "knowledge" that a noob would need to be able
to install/run a thinclient network (I.ve played with switches, routers, xp,
vista, ubuntu, ssh, some command line linux and DOS). I learn easily but I
probably won't be taking a networking class for this since its a volunteer
project.
(1) What size server would I need to run 10-20 thinclients?
(2) What price thinclients would I need to buy if I wanted them to be able
to browse the web, participate in a class teaching adobe photoshop, etc..
(i.e. imagine a room full of 10 students all doing the same thing).
(3) What would a server like this run us, and could it be housed in a
non-airconditioned room with nothing but a wall plug? (We are talking 20
concurrent users at most)
(4) Does one simply use a router+switch or just a switch to connect the
clients to the server?
(5) How much education would we have to give a person that was going to
adminster the server there in Nairobi?
(6) Could the thinclient server be managed some via RDP from the US over an
average speed internet connection?
--
Jesse G.
Tampa, FL
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Download Intel® Parallel Studio Eval
Try the new software tools for yourself. Speed compiling, find bugs
proactively, and fine-tune applications for parallel performance.
See why Intel Parallel Studio got high marks during beta.
http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-sw-dev
_______________________________________________
The Open Source Thin Client Solution http://openthinclient.org
[email protected]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/openthinclient-user
