Cheap Homemade X-Terminals?

aoechsli asks: "I am in the process of setting up a computer learning center for K - 12 age students. The system will be based on a network of about 10 - 15 X-terminals all running off of a server (duh). I will be running Red Hat with KDE2 (when it comes out). It will be used for office aps (Koffice) and Web browsing (Konquerer). What I need help with is trying to find an inexpensive set-up for the X-terminals. I have abandoned the donated hardware route as the set-up of each for individual machine proves to be overwhelming with my limited time constraints. I may be able to secure some funding, and if that comes through, I would like to use a standardized set-up with all of the terminals. I am looking for a small footprint, low power set-up. My proposed solution would be to make an X-terminal with a single board computer and a flat panel display (the 10" LCD seems adequate after seeing the I-Opener.) What flat panel displays are supported? I thought about using flash memory for the boot image, but thought that a smaller HD would be more appropriate. Does anyone have any suggestions on what would be optimal and inexpensive? I am looking to spend no more than $350 on each unit."

Comments

Would it be possible to get a bunch of old laptops

[georgeha]

Since they're just X-terminals, maybe you could get a bunch of identical, low end Pentium laptops, and bolt them down.

If you could get docking stations too, that would avoid the need for PCMCIA NICs.

An my list of things to do is to turn my Thinkpad 500 into an X-terminal.

George

Too bad the I-opener isn't available...

[MattT]

But at the $350 price point, I don't think the LCD screens would be are available any other way. If you can use say a 15" CRT (looks OK at 1024x768)... Then you have lots of options for putting together standardized boxes with reasonable specs. You may want to look at the "Book PC" type machines discussed here earlier... The ones based on the i810 chipset are pretty well supported by linux (with the exception of the winmodem, which wouldn't be needed in your application anyway).
Good luck!