Thin client hardware

gvs · n00b Joined: 29 May 2004 Posts: 45 Location: EU - Belgium

I used to work in a company which uses Solaris/Gnome as a desktop system using thin clients (Sunrays). They were extremly cool, the thin client had USB ports and audio plugs, which where mapped to local devices on the server (so when playing an MP3, the sound was routed to your client.

These devices were CPU and diskless, but unfortunatly they use proprietary Sun software to operate (both the device and the server).

Are there any good thin clients like this available for Linux? (I know you can turn an old PC into one, but it is noisier and bigger).

I'm interested in using something like this for my home network....

Nossie · Apprentice Joined: 19 Apr 2002 Posts: 181

Here is one:
http://www.neoware.com/products/thinclient/linux.html

Try google, there are lots of thin clients out there...

gvs · n00b Joined: 29 May 2004 Posts: 45 Location: EU - Belgium

fleed · l33t Joined: 28 Aug 2002 Posts: 756 Location: London

Don't you even bother going to the link??? The first machine claims to support audio.

papal_authority · Veteran Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 1823 Location: Canada

I second the neoware products. I got a test unit and it works great. So much smaller than a full PC tower too

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gvs · n00b Joined: 29 May 2004 Posts: 45 Location: EU - Belgium

fleed · l33t Joined: 28 Aug 2002 Posts: 756 Location: London

jthompson · Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 3:21 am Post subject:

Currently Neoware's XMCP connection does not support sound. You can get sound locally on the device with local software on the device (i.e. Netscape). However, supposedly artsd in KDE does not have to have any software running on the client to shoot the sound back to the thin client, but I have not found a good how-to on getting artsd to work. I have been told esound has to have an esound client or daemon running on the client, which currently Neoware, doesn't offer. They will however "specially engineer" one for you and charge you a bundle by the hour. Their images are based on Red Hat 6 or 7.

...yes I have spent way too much time researching this thin client thing... ...my head now hurts....
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gvs · n00b Joined: 29 May 2004 Posts: 45 Location: EU - Belgium

Esound can definately handle remote sound (arts too, but with a little more difficulty).
Yet both depend on an artsd or esound running on thin-client.

You can get this support on pxes, but it is still a PC you are using, not the ultra-quiet, cool sunray-style hardware.