The number one advantage of deploying ThinClients in educational settings is that you get more workstations for the same dollars. The ratio is between 2 and 3 times as many workstations as conventional PC's.

ThinClients have come a long way since their introduction over 5 years ago, they are mainstream, in demand and are getting much press. Many local computer companies are receiving inquiries into ThinClients, but unfortunately few have been offering them for sale. Interviews with a few local retail computer companies about ThinClients and their lack of presence in the stores have revealed the same theme: The margin is too low, they'd have to sell 3-4 of them to make up the difference in the margin that they can obtain with a standard PC. Sort of makes you wonder who they're looking out for doesn't it?

ThinClients are on par with mid-sized PC's from a compute cycle perspective, PC's have more internal expansion ports than ThinClient's, but are on par with external USB 2.0 ports. The only real difference between the two is that the ThinClients don't have as many internal expansion capabilities due to their size, everything is connected externally, but only if it's needed.

For most educational deployments, the items that are most requested are:
A computer that has LAN connectivity, monitor, keyboard and mouse. External data storage is usually on a server (NetWare, Linux, Microsoft, SMB, CIFS, NFS etc.). Printing is typically done through network connected printers.

For education, the typical deployment involves ThinClients that are imaged from a single server or ThumbDrive that's booted on one of the ThinClients that has the weekly/monthly instructional image, all other ThinClients are then PXE booted and receive their images (multi-casted) from this booted ThinClient. In some rare instances, client configuration is pushed down to the client through policy driven software (ZenWorks etc.), ThinClients are compatible with this configuration too.

ThinClients are x86 architecture, so anything that is x86 (Microsoft, Suse, RedHat? etc.) can be run on the hardware. The biggest bang for the buck is running OpenSource software, to learn more about varients of Linux like SLETC, Puppy, DSL, give us a call.

With OpenSource software, it's FREE, not as in FREE BEER, but you are free to utilize the software. With some of the distributions, OpenOffice is included with the operating system in the distribution. OpenOffice can and does directly replace Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint?, in other words, the whole Microsoft Office Suite. The advantage of this type of deployment is that there is no associated cost for CAL's. Most educational institutions have price cuts for the Microsoft suites, so this is not as compelling of an advantage, but for most non-educational organizations this is quite compelling and becoming commonplace.

To learn more about ThinClients, drop us an email at or give us a call.