On Fri, 2 Apr 2004, Andy Sy wrote: ..
> 64MB x No. of Clients, IMO, should be the minimum.
So if you have 10 clients, you need 640MB RAM for the server? Ugh... I find it hard to believe it can be anywhere near that bloated.
I think that's just about right. 640MB isn't uncommon anymore for *single* PCs.
Ah... I realize you are probably talking about X terminals and not text terminals. In this case, 64MB on the server per connected client is not that unreasonable. It is still high enough, though, to make me give pause: if you're going to dedicate 64MB per client, why not just put that 64MB on the client itself and run applications locally (i.e. make the server machine an /application/ server, not an X session server...)?
This is part of the reason why X for client/server computing never really caught on. The ratio of the computing resources/power between the client and the server is small enough that it fails to leverage the client/server paradigm effectively.
What I'd *really* be interested in though, is to have super low-cost text terminals connecting to a Linux server. A single Athlon based server with 512MB of RAM can probably support a *hundred* of these clients, maybe even more (this makes perfect sense, as such a machine is already more powerful than the mainframes of yore, which did support that many users).
But two things need to happen first:
1) Someone must build the client terminal machine - it could use something as puny as an 8088. It doesn't even need to be x86 compatible since the only software running on it will be a terminal emulator (it won't run Linux). If there was such a thing as a complete PC on a chip (processor + modem + text-only video card), you should be able to cram the whole thing in a single keyboard enclosure which would then just be plugged into a paperwhite CRT or, better, LCD monitor. The whole thing should cost P5-6K for the CRT version, P10-P12K for a black and white LCD terminal, and P15K for a color LCD terminal. (What would be really great is for a 12.5" color LCD terminal supporting 80x50 characters or better to eventually cost less than P10K)
Hardware guys, if you have an idea how to build this, please contact me...
2) Someone needs to write a good text UI framework (well, I've been working on one, on and off). For many tasks, a well designed text-based application is actually faster for end users to get up and running on AND more efficient in daily use (no mousing around). -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
