NetPCs

[Daniel Albano (1)]

On Thu, 24 Oct 1996, Bob Jones wrote:

> I am intrigued with this idea.  Do you have a feel for how long the
> current generation of Winterms will be viable -- as the browser software
> becomes more complicated and processor speed requirements/expectations
> increase?  How proprietary is the central server should you need to 
> upgrade the hardware? 
> 
> On Thu, 24 Oct 1996, Bob Samson wrote:
> 
> > 
> > We will be experimenting with thin client public workstations this 
> > year.  We'll be using Wyse Winterm workstations and Citrix' WinFrame 
> > server software.  Everything we've seen in regards to these products 
> > indicates that they should make very good, low maintenance, public 
> > web browsing workstations.
> > 
> > We're just getting started on this project, so I don't have any 
> > results (good or bad) to report.  However we're quite excited about 
> > the prospect of providing some clusters of web browsing workstations 
> > which won't require an army of staff to support.
> > 

	We have been installing Citrix for some specialized purposes
	here for some time - it has proved rather more "cranky" than
	we had first expected.

	While it makes only light demands on the client, all indications
	are that resource utiliztion on the server is quite intense.  As
	well, licensing costs are high.

	The server software is proprietary, but the hardware, assuming
	it works with the kernel, is fairly standard.  Being basically
	an NT kernel, it is rather fussy about underlying hardware.
	We have run into a bit of hardware swapping to get the client
	to run happily as well, but I would have to check with the
	technicians for the details.

	There are a number of "PC-like" functions that Winframe will
	apparently not support.

	Note that a Winframe client is not designed for multi-platform
	communications standards.

	Right now, it looks like a better, more standard, and more
	general "canned client in hardware" solution would be to 
	use an X-term.


--
Daniel Albano                           daniel at nypl.north-york.on.ca
Computer Services                       +1 416 395 5907

"Views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect
the position of the North York Public Library."