thin-clients

Open Standards and Becta save the world

ICT-related energy consumption globally is equivalent to the entire aviation industry and accounts for fully 2% of the earth's total energy consumption!

The reason is pretty simple: 20 years of exponential increase in the computing power of PCs was accompanied by the same in their power consumption. Most of this was driven by the symbiotic sales of Intel Chips and Microsoft software, which on obtaining a near monopoly de-facto standard ran out of control. Eventually, the average user had the absurdity of a super computer on her desk to run MS Word.

Home Education and Open Source Software

Home education is all the rage and for good reasons. The likes of the Daily Mail have convinced us that state-funded education has returned to all but a feral condition and the Independent school sector having priced itself out of reach is making staff redundant at every level and is to use the phrase of the month 'sweating out'* its ICT resources.

Meanwhile new energy-efficient computers are cheap, and software and information are freely available.

The Future of Thin-Client Computing

An obesity crisis in the making: thin is good, slim is better, fat is best

For years I have been a fan of the ‘free, open source software/terminal server/disk-less terminal’ model of computing. I am obsessed with the  absurdly large savings on software, licences, maintenance and energy consumption that are there for the having.

I am not alone. Since January, more and more recession-driven education and public sector personnel have been asking me about the latest 'new' (and now fully buzzword-compliant) computing paradigm known as 'thin-client'. I guess the word has got out at last that PCs are a tad overkill.

Blueprint for Survival

The No-Brainer

If state schools and other public sector bodies adopted more Free, Open Source Software and low energy thin-client computing they would:

a) suffer no reduction in their quality of provision and

b) save up to 90% of their total ICT costs.

They could do this without upfront costs if they used the money immediately saved from non-renewal of proprietary licences to fund investment in low energy technology.

This assertion has been made before and details of its components have been explained in previous posts. The money thereby saved UK-wide is in the order of many millions of pounds.

Few dispute this nowadays, even the FUD has all but gone, but who cares anymore?

Wireless Linux Terminal Services

There has been plenty of techno-news last week. The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas made it clear that low-power consumption computing is the only game in newly-green, post-Bush, eco-friendly USA. Interestingly Microsoft has announced that it will take on UK graduates who cannot otherwise get a job; so no change there then. But, soaring above these events, is the real news that there is now a rather nifty system for PXE-booting netbooks wirelessly. The significance of the last point will become clearer as you read on.

It must be said that schools have a few IT problems at the present:

Linux provides affordable alternative for Honda car dealership

It's no secret that the UK's car industry is suffering badly in the economic downturn. Whilst giant US car manufacturers face bankrupcy and the UK government considers providing emergency credit to  Jaguar-Landrover, other industry players must look at innovative solutions to remain competitive.

Nestling in the heart of Surrey, Trident Honda first considered Open Source software when they were faced with an eye-watering £75,000 to 'update' their existing Citrix MetaFrame infrastructure.

Linux can save UK schools billions: Part 2

It's true, free open source software can and will save schools a small fortune. But why schools in particular?

The first thing to get clear in your mind is that I am not talking about simply replacing expensive proprietary software with free open source equivalents. Sure this measure alone saves money and when you are talking about server software it can be a lot of money. However what distinguishes schools is a model of computing that has created an unsustainable money eating monster.

Free, open Source software will allow schools to move to a model that will not only save money but will allow more students access toICT. Below is how this can be achieved.

Known unknowns

Linux triumphs in UK schools as hell freezes over

This post comes hard on the heels of an important piece of news... at least one Open Source company has become part of the Becta's official list of suppliers to the education sector. The new procurement frame work under the aegis of the OGC relaunches the supply of ICT to education. The emphasis is clear: deliver value for money to UK schools.

It was not long ago that most commentators believed an Open Source company would join the likes of Capita, Serco and RM shortly after hell froze over. But times do change. In this case the driving force for change seems to be (we presume) the well-known cost-benefit values of Linux and other Open Source software.

Open Source will lead to the end of the world

A recent post has introduced me to a term with which I was previously unfamiliar. 'Click-bait' was the epithet used by a US reader to describe the title of my blog and it both intrigued and disturbed me. It means self-evidently that the title is more attractive in a sensationalist sense than the article merits. The post below is hardly sensational, it's all about how Linux can speed up your computer hence the sub-title 'Linux feels the Need for Speed'.

Thin-Clients Revisited

The future is green, Open Source and Nintendo!

My principle interest has always been the use of Open Source thin-client solutions in an educational context. Its worth stating, again, what is really the blindingly obvious - thin-client work stations use one twentieth of the power of a typical PC (10-20 watts versus 200-400 watts), require no maintenance or technical per-machine support and Open Source software is free of licence costs.

Thin-client networks should be 'no-brainers' for schools trying to meet carbon targets, giving value for money and eking out scant human resources.