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Jetway PT800TWIN - Dual User Hardware

Posted by timothy on from the for-both-of-me dept.

Steve K writes "Cost-cutting in IT. Something the beancounters are always looking at, no doubt. Jetway have attempted to provide an answer -- allow two users to utilise one machine at once. HEXUS.net have a review: 'The PT800TWIN is an odd beast. While it's admirable that Jetway have engineered it with MagicTwin support in mind, to go after the low-cost/budget/TCO crowd, you have to wonder about the implementation. It needs Windows XP, adding cost. A large proportion of applications released on Windows require you to have two licenses to run concurrently on a MagicTwin system, adding cost. While you save money on the hardware, you don't on the software.' Not really a revolutionary product, but perhaps it can be taken somewhere with a little more work."

19 of 227 comments (clear)

  1. What the heck? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why not just buy a damn server and attach dumbterminals then?

    All this thing is really is a scaled down version of time sharing systems that have been around since the 1950's.

    Oh well, I guess the more things change the more they stay the same.

    1. Re:What the heck? by mabhatter654 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      That's what it IS doing...sort of...

      Think of it as something your 2 kids can share to surf the net. Cheap, low cost, and adding that second kid for "free". Of course the screwed up Licensing ruins the whole thing. The system is great for people at home...after all it's only 1 INSTALLED copy!!! but for businesses the "grey area" makes this useless because you can't fight the BSA when they see you have 12 of these!!

      As far as making a server... you ain't seen MS licensing prices for their terminal services have you...it ends up being cheaper to buy Dells and throw them away because selling Windows and Office is what MS is all about. The software + accounting costs $500+ per seat[and buy a "thin client] to "repliate" what your $499 dell can do [but you gain a little back on ease of support].

      Like Hexus said...as a LINUX box this would rock!!!

    2. Re:What the heck? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Licensing.

      Bill Gates is afraid to death of network computers so he changed the licensing rules to make terminals as expensive as regular pc's.

      Each pc user is counted as a head so you would still pay for the cost.

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
  2. Two users? One machine at once? by Apreche · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Um. You know, if you get a computer with two video cards, two keyboards, two mice and two monitors you can do with with X rather easily. Heck, if you don't mind the performance hit you can technically get a whole bunch of terminals hooked up to one machine like this. You're really not saving that much money though. Commodity PC hardware is so cheap these days that is just doesn't matter that much.

    --
    The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
    1. Re:Two users? One machine at once? by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Heck, if you don't mind the performance hit you can technically get a whole bunch of terminals hooked up to one machine like this.

      it's not much of a performance hit. An old Dual P-III 866 can easily handle 10 users on diskless LTSP terminals and still have enough performance to get users mentioning how "responsive" it is.

      Who care's about hardware cost. I can maintain one computer for my church instead of maintaining 10 of them. my weekly "free" It time is the 45 minutes between Church service and when my daughter get's out of Sunday School.

      ever Cince I switched the church to Linux they have had zero downtime, zero viruses, and most importantly zero system screw-up's by the "computer experts" in the congregation that think adding things from help the church.

      Now they are 100% legal, the secretary can not screw up her computer by reinstalling webshots and claria again for the 37th time after being told not to. AND they have internet access on all machines instead of just one.

      They got more, more performance from older out-dated hardware and I dont spend more than a few minutes a week on it.

      Companies would kill for that, check that, companies ARE killing for that. WE already have 20 users on a LTSP arrangement at work.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  3. Why? by FiReaNGeL · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why choose to buy one very performing desktop to split his performance in half, instead of buying 2 cheap desktops? Performing hardware is always more costly than twice its underperforming counterpart...

    Also, twice the applications running, twice the opportunity to crash...?

    --
    Eureka Science News - automatically updated
    1. Re:Why? by tepples · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The chances 2 people are going to load large apps at the same time really doesn't come up that often.

      What about the first 30 minutes of the work day?

  4. Isn't it possible... by Short+Circuit · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...to set up two X displays on a dual-headed machine, with each display being served by a different keyboard and mouse?

    Give the X server access to the raw HID devices...Use udev to make sure the same keyboard and the same mouse show up as the same device node every time. (Even if you disconnect and reconnect the USB device.)

    Never done it, but I think that's how it would be done.

    --
    tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
  5. Xterms by sPaKr · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wasnt their a story several months ago where someone was shiping 4way xtermainls all homed on a single pentium? I mean XP supporting only 2users seems rather weak when they have 4way X machines using extra video cards and usb kb/mouse.

  6. But in 10 years hardware will be free by aardwolf204 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And considering that in 10 years the hardware will be free this doesnt look like such a great investment.

    Stateless Linux anyone?

    --
    Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the /.crowd.May ur days b merry & bright & may al
  7. Re:A Novel Concept but… by Kogase · · Score: 2, Insightful

    $300 for XP? How ya figure? http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc ription=37-102-153&depa=0 That's OEM, but that's how you buy this machine no? $150

  8. Re:A Novel Concept but… by rainer_d · · Score: 2, Insightful

    > Considering the market that they are targeting,
    > the single largest expense is not the hardware
    > but the software.

    Considering the market they are targeting, the largest software expense will be 10-15 USD, for a DVD with Windows, Office, Photoshop, etc on, that can be bought as "overstock" from the local peasants-market, probably.

    Rainer

    --
    Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
  9. Re:Next by DaHat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Most companies today still run windows for their desktops and work stations. Cutting costs by using linux instead of windows would not win them enough support to make it a viable product.

    Just as the old line went, "No one got fired for choosing IBM", now days it's "No one gets fired for choosing Microsoft". Like it or not, that is just the reality of the world today.

    --
    Help Brendan pay off his student loans
  10. Re:A Novel Concept but… by Amiga+Lover · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Not to mention that of all the hardware only the base system can be shared. Keyboard, mouse and monitor all need to stay one-per-user as they are now, and a monitor is a pretty big portion of the price of desktops.

  11. Re:A Novel Concept but... by tepples · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Get a linux box and a few Xterms

    But then wouldn't you have to buy a copy of Crossover Office and Microsoft Office for each X terminal you attach? Many businesses rely on being able to open Microsoft Office documents that OpenOffice.org chokes on.

  12. Re:Hum... by bluekanoodle · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's cheaper for those looking for a solution on a smaller scale. Citrix is great if you have enough users to justify the cost of a separate server, and the licensing for citrix, and the software license. However, for 2 to 10 users that might be overkill.

  13. Internet Cafe by ARRRLovin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It looks like the perfect app for that would be in an Internet cafe with 2 15" monitors, keyboards and meese. Less maintenance and you can just re-image every morning before you open the doors.

    --
    -Randy
  14. Re:Anyone remember Citrix? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Yeah, I have heard of it.

    A company I visited was lauding Citrix. They told me about all of it's features. The single biggest savings was in installing and maintaining Windows software. One single place to install and update Windows software. When I asked to see it, they said "Well, right now, you can't! The server is down, so nobody can do anything."

    One point of failure neutralizes the entire company. Smaaaaart!

  15. We tried one of these at work... by No-op · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I was looking to provide two separate terminals for a very, very expensive financial data application that typically has two screens anyway- if you work in the industry you know the one I'm talking about.

    I read about the "MagicTwin" boxes on a hardware site, and thought it might be worth a shot to see if I could get it to work with the "per terminal" licensing features.

    it was a PAIN IN THE ASS to get the whole system working properly, and it basically is just a hacked up version of RDP so it provides a terminal on a second keyboard, mouse, and monitor (the machines have a built in dual head card, or require certain add in cards).

    all in all, it was usable, but nothing to write home about. it didn't work for duping the app either, as it was pretty much the same as a terminal session through RDP and I think people have tried that route before :)

    seriously though, it's kind of cheesy and proprietary... you'd be better off buying generic hardware (a decent shuttle box, for example) and having two separate machines. the admin overhead of that little POS is really not worth the effort, IMHO.

    (for reference, mine is an AMD based box, with a NForce2 IGP- I think it's the magictwin 765 or something like that.)

    --
    EOM