![]() ![]() The clients configure via DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) and download a minimal GNU/Linux operating system from the server using TFTP (Tiny File Transfer Protocol). How can you get this all to work without resorting to magic or hiring a magician? LTSP, the Linux Terminal Server Project is a free software project intended to make the setup easy. CPU utilization versus time with nine users You save hundreds of dollars in electrical energy over the lengthy lifetime of this equipment and you do not need to listen to all those pointless whirring sounds. You do not need to chase dust bunnies on these fanless units. This is a much better system than paying per-user licence fees, installing and maintaining software on hard drives on each client and keeping all the disks and fans turning. The first time a user loads a program the server caches it in memory for any subsequent users. ![]() By investing a little more on the server, everyone gets to share in the benefit and it is never wasted. ![]() You get away with having thirty users at once running on the server because recent CPUs have the power and the typical user typing and clicking uses up only a small percentage of such a CPU and uses the power in short bursts. The server is a reasonably powerful PC with extra memory and storage. The low-powered clients do little except relay inputs and graphics between the user and the server via the X Window System. What you have are workstations of fanless, diskless clients connected to LCD monitors, mice and keyboards. This is old but capable technology made easy to install thanks to the GNU/Linux revolution Cost per client This is old but capable technology made easy to install thanks to the GNU/Linux revolution. GNU/Linux makes it free to use to its potential. A stock server or a custom-built server made from off-the-shelf parts has taken the place of the mainframe in a client/server arrangement. Clarke once made the comment that “technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic”. The workstations use twenty watts each and have no fans. You back up only one machine, the server. The workstations have nothing but network boot loaders. The server runs for months without a reboot. Your software costs were only some download and CD burn time and forty minutes for installation. Your cost of hardware was CAD$350 for each workstation, CAD$10 to connect it to an existing 100Mbps LAN, and about CAD$60 for a share of a server in another room (CAD$1 = US$0.87). You see thirty new workstations giving great service. ![]()
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January 2023
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