backup & low downtime for home network

[Robert Brockway]

On Thu, 6 Dec 2007, Chris Aitken wrote:

> Well, yeah, rather than pretend I'm going to try this some day, I'lltell you
> why I haven't and maybe if I tell you why I haven't you can soothe my fear
> and then I'll actually try this. Here goes: "It sounds difficult to set up".

Hi Chris.  This is a reasonable concern and I have a couple of responses:

1.  It isn't as difficult as you probably think it is.  On Linux we have
LTSP (http://www.ltsp.org). which greatly simplifies the process.  Most
major distros already include LTSP.  There can be a few little "gotchas"
just like any other reasonably complex application.  Fortunately there is
great mailing list & irc help as always with open source apps.  Most 
problems seem to revolve around configuring TFTP ot DHCP (the underlying 
boot technologies).

2.  You only need to do it once :)  That's one of the biggest advantages
of thin client across the board.  Once you have it working it is little or
no trouble to add additional thin clients.

>> I've had a thin client (XTerminal) on my desk for about 12 years nowand I
>> get better performance because of it.
>
> Maybe my son's computer (bpc) would be a good candidate.

I'd say so.

Thanks to "shared memory" and "copy-on-write" Linux makes very efficent 
use of memory on a thin client server.  This is particularly true since 
most people use the same apps most of the time (office apps, web browser, 
mail client, etc).

It still makes sense to put a good amount of memory on the thin client 
server though.  More ram means more disk cache and more memory to run apps 
(so less swapping).  In recent years I've wanted at least 1GB ram for a 
thin client server.  If you can afford it (and the system supports it) 2GB 
or more is even better.  For a thin client system the memory on the server 
is key to performance.  Multi-core CPUs are particularly useful in a thin 
client server but certainly not essential.

In recent years I've wanted at least 128MB for the thin clients 
themselves.

>> Perhaps I need to give a thin client talk to GTALUG.  I know you probably
>> can't make it Chris :(
>
> Well, if you can get past your Toronto-centric attitude you could ask
> everyone to attend a meeting in Timmins. You can all stay at my house.
>
> :)

A road trip! :)

Cheers,

Rob

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"With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine..."
 	-- RFC 1925 "The Twelve Networking Truths"
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