Gentoo Desktop Server

[lukjel_op]

Hi!

In short - I've got some idea how to solve our problem with "too-many-linux-boxes" and I'm waiting for any sugestions (pro&con).
We have many linux stations used by our developers. It's had to maintain and it is not flexible: we want to make it easy to change workstations for developers. It should be unimportant - which computer you are phisically using - everywhere is the same soft (mostly Java + Eclipse).
My idea: take one server (2xOpteron Dual Core, >8GB RAM) and many "x-windows stations" - simple ones. I want to install simple x-window on clients and everyone is using real server (by x-windows server). This configutration will be used by 8-15 developers (when more than 10 I want to extend RAM up to 16GB and maybe use 4 CPUs).
Am I clear (I'm not so sure - it's very ealy for me right now)?
What do you think? Do you have better idea?

And of course: gentoo everywhere (but this is so obvious)!

[tuam]

Generally, developers disagree about sharing one big box - me included They will complain about latency, because every action will take a roundtrip to the server, about other developers using too many resources, about not being able to change the important setting or installing the important additional tool NOW.

If the developers boxen are of similar hardware, you may be able to maintain one installation image which is copied over to all the others, or even booted over the network. The /home directories could be mounted from the server, so every dev will find her settings and files on every box. I haven't done this before, but it may be helpful to do some reading about ldap.

FF,

Daniel
_________________
Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. - Spock
The needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many. - Kirk
I refuse to let arithmetic decide questions like that. - Picard

[lukjel_op]

We made some tests and here you are few facts:
1) AMD64 3500 (but in 32 bit mode) with 2GB RAM and SATA HDD is enough for at least 3 develoepers (Eclipse)
2) It looks great! (I didn't put it on first place - I'm excited but not so much). Yes - there is a latency - but not big. In true - because machine is slighty faster then typical workstation - developers even feel beter - build time / deploy time is significantly shorter then previously (AMD Athlon 64 3000). We plan to change "server" to AMD64 X2 4600+ and 4GB RAM - this is much better also because of dual core in CPU - then we realy expect increase of speed...
3) Management is great - jusst it works
How much it costs? Let's say - we will spend on server something about $4000 - in this price we can buy 2 CPU unit with about 8GB RAM. Then each work place cost: $100 for "computer" (used one - no HDD, just CD player, PIII 800MHz, 256MB RAM ) and about $300 for LCD ( 17"-19" ) - for 10 workers we spend - $4000 + $400 x 10 = $8000. Traditional solution - we spend about $1000 for each work station - $1000 x 10 = $10.000 - $2000 save. Is it worth? No. Because it is not the most important thing - we even thing about spending more - we want to buy backup server and 2 or 3 old computers also for a backup purpose. The most important is simplicity - everything works everywhere. No configuration problem. We have few developers rooms and flexible teams (people change their team rather often - XP rulez) - now everyone can sit everywhere and start working without problem. No more sentences like: it works on my computer, I do not know why it doesn't on your... etc. Our developers used to work in "flexible hours" - it means from 7AM upto 10PM someone is working in the office - developers can use a full power of server... and they can work faster.

Of course - SERVER is Gentoo BOX. Unfortunately "work stations" aren't There is a great project PXSE (or PSXE... I don't remember) - you can build thin client bootable CD by your self... and in our case image for CD is 12MB... It's greatly configured - just press a button style (automaticaly starts Xserver and connects to GDM).
There should be a possibility to build something like this in Gentoo way (because PSXE is rather old and dead - there is no new hardware support)... do you know how to do this?