AppleCentral (Part 2 of 2)
AppleCentral (Part 2 of 2)
- Subject: AppleCentral (Part 2 of 2)
- From: Karan Misra <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2003 00:11:55 +0530
But the main idea is centralization. What Apple needs to do is build
Mac terminals. Do you remember the good old days of UNIX terminals?
(Well, I dont because I wasnt even born then) Well, its time to go
back to our roots. Let me describe a situation. Let there be a computer
lab with 50 computers. They are all linked to a pair of servers using
Gigabit Ethernet. Now, these dumb terminals will do exactly what the
UNIX terminals did, but instead they will do it in GUI instead of CUI.
Now, you may think that I am trying to describe a situation using
Remote Desktop or other such software, but that is not the case. Here,
images arent being transferred, but commands are transferred. The
terminal includes a light processor, which can basically render
whatever the server sends it. This system is a blessing in many ways.
First of all, the constant problems that system admins face is that
hundreds of students go through these computers and at the end of the
day the computers are really messed up. In this system, the admins have
a lot of options since all the accounts are setup on a single server
and they dont need to go from system to system troubleshooting. Also,
they need to install software only once on the server and it will be
accessible to all the systems together. In addition to this, since the
terminals have a small fraction of the components of a real computer,
these terminals will be small and lightweight. Think of using just 8
processors instead of 50 (one in each computer). The admins will also
be able to easily reset the preferences, etc. of many accounts together.
In Apples context this means that two or three Xserves will be serving
one whole lab which means that it will cost around $10000-15000 for the
servers and about $50-$100 for each terminal adding up to $12500-$20000
for a lab of fifty computers rather than $40000. Not only that, but
even existing Windows machines installed can become dumb terminals,
just by hooking them up to the server array and installing the client
software onto them, which would essentially upgrade the lab without
replacing a single system. You might want to check out a company called
Citrix () which already makes such products for Windows, Linux and Mac
OS X. Believe me, it was faster than Virtual PC when I was working
(yes, working) on a system in New York from New Delhi over a 28.8K
modem. The performance can easily match a top-end business system over
a LAN.
Get working Apple!
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