I too have had much experience with thin clients. I work for a thin client company developing linux based thin clients. I have always thought thin clients (or at least the idea) was perfectly matched to a school's needs. They are relatively inexpensive, easy to maintain and use.
The question of server software of course depends on what applications your users will need. Many school labs use PCs as glorified type writers and web browsers. This is quite wasteful in my opinion. There are several server packages that may be of interest, many have already been mentioned:
Citrix (For your Win Apps), RDP (if you just love MS), Citrix CDS (free, missing some functionallity like load balancing and client drive mapping, but largley functional), Tarantella, and of course XDM, *nix terminals.
Many thin clients (particularly *nix based ones) are capable of connecting to all of these types of servers and more. I use thin clients dayly for all sorts of "lab-like" activities: email, word processing, web browsing,/. ing, development. I rarly have difficulties.
Because thin clients depend on the network and servers for running applications, a fast network is quite desirable. This also makes then inappropriate for some tasks; basically anything that is graphics intensive. That is unless you are running that app locally (i.e. your thin client comes with a web browser).
If you are really cost conscious, try turning those existing PCs into thin client devices by running LTSP or simply installing linux, and limiting the applications available to the users. Unfortunatly this does provide you with all of the management advantages of a thin client.
Another option would be to buy thin clients (definately recycle your existing monitors) and use your PCs are nodes in a server farm. These can be running Citrix or just doing simple XDM load balancing.
In general I think that the combonation of thin clients and well maintained servers is perfect for 80% of the computer labs found in schools. If you like the idea of thin clients there are really many ways to proceed. The best starting point is simply to define which labs need access to what applications. Then decide which of those you want to run on your servers (some are more CPU intesive than others: web browswers). Then find a client (or roll your own) that has just enough CPU to run it's local apps and connect to your servers.
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I too have had much experience with thin clients. I work for a thin client company developing linux based thin clients. I have always thought thin clients (or at least the idea) was perfectly matched to a school's needs. They are relatively inexpensive, easy to maintain and use.
/. ing, development. I rarly have difficulties.
The question of server software of course depends on what applications your users will need. Many school labs use PCs as glorified type writers and web browsers. This is quite wasteful in my opinion. There are several server packages that may be of interest, many have already been mentioned:
Citrix (For your Win Apps), RDP (if you just love MS), Citrix CDS (free, missing some functionallity like load balancing and client drive mapping, but largley functional),
Tarantella, and of course XDM, *nix terminals.
Many thin clients (particularly *nix based ones) are capable of connecting to all of these types of servers and more. I use thin clients dayly for all sorts of "lab-like" activities: email, word processing, web browsing,
Because thin clients depend on the network and servers for running applications, a fast network is quite desirable. This also makes then inappropriate for some tasks; basically anything that is graphics intensive. That is unless you are running that app locally (i.e. your thin client comes with a web browser).
If you are really cost conscious, try turning those existing PCs into thin client devices by running LTSP or simply installing linux, and limiting the applications available to the users. Unfortunatly this does provide you with all of the management advantages of a thin client.
Another option would be to buy thin clients (definately recycle your existing monitors) and use your PCs are nodes in a server farm. These can be running Citrix or just doing simple XDM load balancing.
In general I think that the combonation of thin clients and well maintained servers is perfect for 80% of the computer labs found in schools. If you like the idea of thin clients there are really many ways to proceed. The best starting point is simply to define which labs need access to what applications. Then decide which of those you want to run on your servers (some are more CPU intesive than others: web browswers). Then find a client (or roll your own) that has just enough CPU to run it's local apps and connect to your servers.
Good luck.