Added: 12/17/2005 |
Linux terminal server on LTSP platformNowadays, the information technologies are developed so high that almost nobody remembers about the old 386 or 486 processors. New power for computers is available and a clock rate lower than 1 HHz seems to be funny. However, there is still an opportunity for using the old Intel 486 to work with Office XP, listen to music, watch movies and do other time consuming activities.
Software needs are growing up very quickly. If you have just bought a new modern computer, one year later it will be not able to process some new games. In these cases, people upgrade their home PCs and there can be an indefinite number of such upgrades. For this purpose the Linux systems propose a wonderful alternative. It is the Linux terminal server technology for diskless workstations, supported by the LTSP project.
The LTSP solutions guarantee all the advantages of the Linux terminal server technology. They provide a significant decrease of wastes for the hardware obtaining. With the terminal server technology there is no need to purchase a software copy for each working place, it is only enough to install it on the server. The LTSP provides the full power of the operation system Linux Internet technologies. This is the open source software with all its features: a free software downloading, an open source code that can be changed by you. The Linux terminal server technology is flexible, since it allows to work in a pure Linux environment and heterogeneous systems as well.
If your environment requires the usage of such system, then you should use all the LTSO advantages. The Linux terminal server network on this base will be efficient from the technical and economical sides.
The basic operation system for the Linux terminal server is Linux with an installed LTSP package. Terminals are proposed for the interaction with applications that work only on the servers. A user switches on his terminal and connects to the server. In this way, he receives an access to a private desktop from any system terminal. This technology supports the local applications start, i.e. you can create powerful diskless workstations by using minimal processor resources of the terminal server.
The LTSP grants the support for Windows applications. For this purpose you should additionally install the Windows server with the support of terminal sessions for a separate computer or a virtual machine, implemented with the Vmware at the same terminal server.
The number of displayed colors for the Windows terminals depends on the RDP protocol version. The Protocols RDP 4 and RDP 5 support 256 colors. To use more colors, you need the support for RDP 5.1 protocol by the client and server sides. The protocols version depends on the version of the used terminal server from Microsoft. You can avoid this dependency with the Citrix MetaFrame solution that uses its own enterprise protocols ICA.
There are no restrictions for the Linux terminals. It is possible to adjust the X-server of the terminal to use all the available opportunities of the hardware graphical sub-system.
The LTSP technology does not restrict you in the choice of a real work solution. You can integrate the Linux terminal server system to any local network. In addition, Linux initially is a network operation system, thus, you obtain all the advantages of network processing at once.
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