This really isn't anything new. The ARPA/DARPA that created ARPAnet and a lot of the early advances in computing hasn't really existed since the mid to late 70's. At that point the there was a demand that projects return usable results within 2-3yrs. I don't know what it has been like for the last 20yrs, but unless there was a change towards more openended research I don't see how this is much different.
I did an install of Linux Terminal Server for a small rural library a little less than 2 years ago. They went from a windows environment like you describe, a constant level of administration. I was able to use all of their old machines as terminals, the only expense as far as those go were bootable network cards.
The server was a simple $1500 box I estimate able to handle 15-20 web users without issue.
For the client side setup I customised a KDE desktop using Kiosk mode to lock down the desktop and the applications. I used Konqueror for the web browser due to the ease of locking it down with DCOP probes and Kiosk.
Administration of the system went to near zero. All the staff does on a daily basis is start and shutdown the client machines. Really. No one on staff even has root access.
The only real problems seen over the life of the system have been confusion due to the printing dialog in KDE. People ended up printing a whole doc instead of specific pages.
The project turned out very well and ended up with a very happy customer. Talk to your local linux users group, you should be able to find someone capable of building a similar system for you.
If you followed the mailing lists you would know that nvidia engineers have been involved in the design discussions for the upcoming X server. The one thread in particular I noticed was how the new Damage/Composite stuff would get along with things like GL and XvMC.
I personally am very excited to see how things are going. I was a fly on the wall during a discussion between KeithP and Raster when Keith was starting xrender, I'm happy to see his vision of a porter/duff style graphics environment coming to fruition.
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This really isn't anything new. The ARPA/DARPA that created ARPAnet and a lot of the early advances in computing hasn't really existed since the mid to late 70's. At that point the there was a demand that projects return usable results within 2-3yrs. I don't know what it has been like for the last 20yrs, but unless there was a change towards more openended research I don't see how this is much different.
I did an install of Linux Terminal Server for a small rural library a little less than 2 years ago. They went from a windows environment like you describe, a constant level of administration. I was able to use all of their old machines as terminals, the only expense as far as those go were bootable network cards.
The server was a simple $1500 box I estimate able to handle 15-20 web users without issue.
For the client side setup I customised a KDE desktop using Kiosk mode to lock down the desktop and the applications. I used Konqueror for the web browser due to the ease of locking it down with DCOP probes and Kiosk.
Administration of the system went to near zero. All the staff does on a daily basis is start and shutdown the client machines. Really. No one on staff even has root access.
The only real problems seen over the life of the system have been confusion due to the printing dialog in KDE. People ended up printing a whole doc instead of specific pages.
The project turned out very well and ended up with a very happy customer. Talk to your local linux users group, you should be able to find someone capable of building a similar system for you.
I loved those joysticks. I wore at least 3 of them out. Damn move-the-stick-back-and-forth-as-fast-as-you-possi bly-can games :)
If you followed the mailing lists you would know that nvidia engineers have been involved in the design discussions for the upcoming X server. The one thread in particular I noticed was how the new Damage/Composite stuff would get along with things like GL and XvMC.
I personally am very excited to see how things are going. I was a fly on the wall during a discussion between KeithP and Raster when Keith was starting xrender, I'm happy to see his vision of a porter/duff style graphics environment coming to fruition.
Pine isn't Free Software and never has been. Blame the authors of the software for their choice of license, Fedora.