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Wine Terminal Servers?
e8johan asks: "I have been thinking about trying to sell a Linux based thin client solution to different markets, like schools. One of the big problems with migrating to Linux is the loss of old applications such as Microsoft Office. Has anyone tried to combine
Wine
and the
LTSP? Does it work? If so, it would enable me (and anyone else) to sell services based on a free (as in libre and beer) server running both open office and their proprietary equivalents in a Windows-like environment, thus reducing the migration costs and making the offer more attractive." While this would be an interesting to tackle, would the licensing terms on some proprietary packages complicate such a system?
Depending on your clients (this won't work with 486s or Pentiums) you can use "Local Mode" or even mixed Local/Remote. In this setup, the client downloads the app to RAM, then runs it from there using the local CPU, local RAM, local vid card, local sound card, and so on. Relieves the load from the server, but still allows you to run diskless clients (although we use the local HD for swap space).
:)
We're using this setup in our elementary school Linux labs. We are running CodeWeaver's version of WINE for the odd Windows app that does not yet have a Linux counterpart. We haven't told them that it's the Windows version running, though, as then they'd want to run other Windows apps and we'd be no better off than before the switch to Linux.
Actually, running this configuration can give plenty of benefits. Yes, you still have to purchase the Windows software, but you don't have to purchase skookum workstations to run them on, nor do you have to purchase expensive MS server software to run a similar setup.
:)
Buy one skookum server for $3000 or so (dual-proc, mega ram, good disks). Then run thin-clients and diskless workstations. Depending on the speed of the client CPU and the amount of RAM on the client, you can either run pure-remote (run app on server, show display on client) or local-mode (download app to client ram, run on client cpu), and even run a combination of the two on the same client.
You have super-stable workstations running the normal Windows software. You only have to administer a single software image (the server) and upgrades are simple as there is only a single server image to worry about. All the clients boot remotely across the network, and the local harddrive is used solely for swapspace.
It's a great concept, and an IT admin's dream -- only 1 box to worry about, full control over everything. All you have to worry about now is dying hardware on the clients.