[WEB4LIB] Re: Thin Client Technology

[Edward Wigg]

We are in the process of looking at NIC thin clients; I have one in my
office for testing now. I like it -- it is almost perfect straight out of
the box.

*It's cheap.
*It's small (10"x11"x2.25"), with removable feet.
*It boots from a cd (there is no hard drive), so there is no network
overhead or need for a server to store its boot image.
*Everything runs locally (you could change that if you _really_ wanted to).
*It's running a very straightforward Linux set up (hidden from the casual
user).
*Its spec is entirely adequate: Cyrix processor, 64M RAM, 4M flash RAM for
config and ephemera.
*Ethernet, modem, USB and sound (including speakers if you want them) all
installed.
*Keyboard & mouse included -- all you need to get going is a monitor (they
will sell you one or you can provide your own).
*Did I mention that it's cheap?

The price is great $199.99 without monitor -- they will sell you a monitor
for $129.99 if you want an exciting black one to match the NIC, if you
can't find a better deal elsewhere (you should be able to find a 15" for
under $100 if you try)-- making the entire package $330. When you consider
that www.disklessworkstations.com sells its cheapest comparable box, the
"Jammin 75" (faster processor less RAM), for $376 (monitor, keyboard,
mouse, and speakers not included), you will see what a good price it is.
The iPaq (with a 17" monitor included) can be had for $699 -- a great price
for a good product, but still more than twice the price of the NIC. The
price is finally really in the range of the dumb terminals they will be
replacing!

What's not to like?

*The box seems to run a little warm, which could be a problem if you want
to mount it hidden in a tight space.
*The Cyrix processor is far from state of the art, but you have to remember
that you are not running any version of Windows, so it really doesn't need
to have anything faster to make its performance quite good enough for its
intended use.
*To change the configuration you have to burn a new CD. While the default
configuration is good a little local customization would be an improvement
(it would also be nice to remove the obvious links to the setup pages ;-).
Burning Linux boot CDs it not that big a deal, but it is the sort of thing
that most people don't already know how to do (I'm busy teaching myself all
the nuances right now :-).
*The only moving part (apart from a couple of small fans) is the CD drive
-- I have no idea how durable it will be over the long term, but to be fair
it is locked except during boot, so it won't be opened and closed often,
and it only runs very occasionally after initial boot (everything is
usually already in RAM).
*Network printing is easy if you have an available lpd print queue (or a
printer that provides one), but if you want local printing the USB port
currently only has a driver for the Stylus 740 (I presume that will change
as USB printer drivers become more common under Linux).

I've only had the NIC for a few days, and I have been waiting for my order
of blank CDRs to come in before I got down to seriously trying to change
the configuration, so I'm not really in a position to give a final
determination of whether there are any unforeseen problems or reasons
against using NICs for Web browsing and catalog access, but from what I've
seen so far it looks good. 

If there is interest I am willing to let you all know how I get on.

Edward