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Microsoft to Release a Thin-Client Windows XP

Posted by timothy on from the see-also-ltsp dept.

repking writes "I'm reading on Brian Madden's Thin Client Web that Microsoft is about to release (don't know exactly when) two new versions of Windows XP targeting the thin-client market (This products ARE NOT the Lite XP versions that Microsoft is about to release on certain countries like Brazil). Codenamed Eiger and Mönch, these two new releases would let you 'convert' old PC into thin-client Devices. Is Microsoft trying to compete with open source projects like PXES or ThinStation?"

1 of 349 comments (clear)

  1. Re:This won't work by El+Gordo+Motoneta · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've been (for the most part) responsible for the implementation
    of the second larget thin-client rollout in my country. In fact,
    I'm still in that position, since we still have two whole buildings
    left to migrate.

    The average box in this company is a Pentium II, 333Mhz, with 64MB of RAM
    with Trident PCI VGA.

    They are way too slow to run a modern desktop (before we started the
    thin client rollout, they were mostly running their original Windows 95
    installation), but they are fast enough to run Xfree 4.3 with accelerated
    2D Trident drivers. They run *beautifully*. The large amount or RAM
    let's us add small webservers and telnet servers to the thin client disk
    images, and a Samba nmbd process so they have a NetBIOS name. We are using
    Terminal services on a Windows 2003 Server to provide a modern and relatively
    secure OS.

    So far, the absolutely biggest complaint we have ever had is that Office
    2003 does not include the "Office shortcut bar" (boo-f*ng-hoo) so we ended
    up installing the damn bar from an Office XP CD we had lying around.

    The users are happy with their "new computers". They crash a lot less, Word
    and Excel open instantly, and if power goes out or the machine breaks, their
    whole session is intact. Help Desk is a lot easier now: When a thin client
    craps out, the techies just dump it and plug another one in, turn it on,
    and the user keeps on working as if nothing happened.

    locked down? yes, they are. Very. But in this particular company there are
    nearly no "power users" and they barely even notice things the lack of a
    wallpaper. They just power it up and use it to work.