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Gizmo Turns Old PCs Into Linux-Based Thin Clients

Posted by timothy on from the reclaim-the-old-and-make-it-new dept.

An anonymous reader writes "LinuxDevices has published an article about the 'PC Reviver', a small device that replaces hard drives in aging computers with a solid-state flash memory drive that boots an embedded Linux OS. The 'revived' computer can then be used as a thin-client network appliance for Citrix, Windows, Linux, and/or browser-based server-centric computing networks."

3 of 32 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I can do that by TeknoHog · · Score: 2, Informative
    I think he was referring to the fact that not all compact flash cards are without moving parts, like IBM Microdrives.

    Microdrives are not flash cards, they are hard drives. Even though they have a CF connector.

    Flash refers to 'flash EEPROM' which is different from an ordinary EEPROM in that it can be quickly erased (and possibly read/written too) in blocks instead of single bytes.

    But my computer still has moving electrons and photons ;)

    --
    Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  2. price is very high. by geohump · · Score: 2, Informative

    Price for the hardware seems high. Just take one of these devices below:
    http://purchase.winstation.com/mall/Flash_Disk_Mod ule_Horizontal.asp http://www.disklessworkstations.com/cgi-bin/web/in fo/fdm.html?id=IUiSsDnP http://www.idotpc.com/TheStore/Desktop/890Spec.asp ?Product.id=890&Cate.id=11
    And flash it with LTSP ( http://www.ltsp.org ) and you have the same thing. Plug it into an old PC, and you have an instant thin client which doesn't need to boot over the network. The kernel is embedded and LTSP supports pretty much all of the services listed for this device, and it looks like they will be adding support for "FreeNX" same as asterisk.

  3. Re:I can do that by MarsDefenseMinister · · Score: 2, Informative

    Years ago, when radios were built mostly with vacuum tubes, the transistor radios were marvels of technology. They were emblazoned with little words, announcing that the radio you were holding had "16 transistors" or something like that. The implication was that the more transistors, the better. Another way the marketers would emphasize the high-tech nature of the product would be to put the words "Solid State" on the case. To users, that meant that there were no vacuum tubes inside, only transistors. Vacuum tubes also have no moving parts, so solid state means that it is built with no moving parts, and WITH transistors.

    --
    No weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men.-Ronald Reagan