Thin client for remote desktop sessions

[Scott_Arm]

I'm looking for a simple thin client that supports Windows remote desktop sessions. Basically, we have a lab at work with a lot of basic PCs that IT will not support anymore. For the most part people work by using a remote desktop session to the pc at their desk on another floor. In essence, we're using the PCs in the lab as thin clients in most situations. I'd like to get some kind of basic cheap thin-client that people can use, in the place of the lab PC, to remote desktop to the pc at their desk. That way I don't have to support all of the PCs for updating patches, virus scanners etc.

If you have any suggestions, please let me know. I'm looking into using Raspberry Pis to do this.

 

[Arwin]

Not a bad idea to try Raspberry Pis. I know our mother company has an interesting system where they have $100 boxes+monitors (based on Linux) that connect to a personal VM hosted on a server (so depending on your login account, you get your own personal VM). This is very easy to admin and do roll-outs on, and interestingly a huge savings is made in an unexpected area: the power bill alone decreases to a point where shifting to this setup earns back itself in about one year.

 

[Blazkowicz]

there's one very low cost windows thin client I know of, it's a few years old and was $100 all along, a custom linux is included made to boot and log on to RDP servers as quickly as possible so in essence you drop it and it's operational out of the box.

http://www.norhtec.com/products/mctc/index.html

the CPU is very slow but real thin clients can get by on little. Stuff like full screen flash can be problematic but web browsing, spreadsheets more than fine.

it's also old style PS/2 + VGA (but has USB), it's from a small thaï company and you have long and costly shipping. dunno if it works with Server 2012 (Server 2008 is mentioned)

I also have no idea how RDP sessions are advertised on the network, I first thought you were going to use server Windows. But server Windows is identical to desktop Windows under the hood and when you use XP pro's remote desktop (or a further version) it's the same technology being used.

 

[Blazkowicz]

Not a bad idea to try Raspberry Pis. I know our mother company has an interesting system where they have $100 boxes+monitors (based on Linux) that connect to a personal VM hosted on a server (so depending on your login account, you get your own personal VM). This is very easy to admin and do roll-outs on, and interestingly a huge savings is made in an unexpected area: the power bill alone decreases to a point where shifting to this setup earns back itself in about one year.

This is wasteful on the server side compared to running just one OS on a physical host . But your way (I think the buzzword is "VDI") looks flexible and easy when deployed and these days maybe you just build a server with 64GB or 128GB memory and a SSD.
Still I like the old way, instead of a VM each user gets a user directory and you manage one single machine (plus a back up machine when the first one fries, which you need with VMs too). Same thing as /home/Arwin or C:\Documents and Settings\Arwin on your desktop.

 

[Blazkowicz]

Posting again, on the linux side it could be a question of what is the ideal thin client distro. but you might want something that runs on your little ARM board. so maybe the question is, how to turn a debian port for your little ARM box or straight debian into a seamless windows thin client.

so, you have autologin and an X session manager that launches an RDP client full screen (lxsession is trivial to use, lxdm is nice, they are from lxde which you might as well install)
the "desk PC" needs a pro/business windows version and remote desktop configured (and I'm wondering if remote desktop only works for the admin which would imply you run windows as root!)

anyway : gl hf!

 

[Scott_Arm]

Seems like Raspberry Pi is out, because they don't have a hardware accelerated X11 video driver for linux. Video performance is just too slow. Someone else already had my idea, and they're basically waiting on that driver. Their project is called the Raspberry Pi Thin Client Project. There are a number of other Raspberry Pi competitors, so I'll keep looking into those.

I'll take a look at lxsession and lxdm. Having the computer boot and load the remote desktop client automatically was one of the problems I knew I'd have to solve, so thanks for that

 

[matstones]

Thin Client suggestion

I'm looking for a simple thin client that supports Windows remote desktop sessions. Basically, we have a lab at work with a lot of basic PCs that IT will not support anymore. For the most part people work by using a remote desktop session to the pc at their desk on another floor. In essence, we're using the PCs in the lab as thin clients in most situations. I'd like to get some kind of basic cheap thin-client that people can use, in the place of the lab PC, to remote desktop to the pc at their desk. That way I don't have to support all of the PCs for updating patches, virus scanners etc.

If you have any suggestions, please let me know. I'm looking into using Raspberry Pis to do this.

something like this....?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXLkjoVIDOA