Dell 4700 or eMachines T5026

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

<ben_myers_spam_me_not @ charter.net (Ben Myers)> wrote in message
news:4235b01b.6077252@nntp.charter.net...
> Stew,
>
> You're right. The price of a new thin client is right up there with that
> of a
> Dimension 3000. Used thin clients of various types are pretty
> inexpensive on
> eBay, but to buy and deploy them, one needs to know what they will and
> what they
> will not do. In comparsion, a Dimension 3000 or similar box needs to be
> locked
> down as best as possible to keep it from getting totally hosed up by the
> security holes in Windows and the malicious or naive uses by patrons of
> the
> cafe. For this, I would have identical hardware setups and keep a spare
> hard
> drive or two around imaged and to install when the inevitably trashed hard
> drive
> occurs... Ben Myers
>


Sounds like a plan to me at $299 to $499 each ( the latter if one puts an
LCD with it).


Stew

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

All the previously mentioned types of software are very intensive in their use
of the graphics subsystem. Even with gigabit Ethernet, having all the bits
flowing across an Ethernet to the thin client seems like 56K dialup again
compared to having a graphics adapter right there in the system.

Likewise, Dimension 3000s may not be too good for gaiming compared to a computer
with 8xAGP or PCI-Express graphics.

Thin clients are hard to resell, which is why there are so many up for auction
on eBay... Ben Myers

On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 13:21:41 -0600, me@privacy.net wrote:

>> Beyond
>>basic internet+office, thin clients tend to be woefully inadequate. I support
>>clients who use thin clients in one way or another. Forget PhotoShop, gaming,
>>and several other species of software which are either compute-intensive or
>>graphics-intensive... Ben Myers
>
>I see
>
>Thanks for that info.
>
>But Im curious how they are woefully inadequate for
>other purposes?

 

[ME]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

>Thin clients are hard to resell, which is why there are so many up for auction
>on eBay... Ben Myers

Thanks Ben.... you've been a BIG help!!

I will stick with centrally managed system such as
Optiplex

 

[ME]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

>It's not *the* way. It's *one* way. I agree with the others in that you
>first have to decide what will be done on systems in the cafe. The more
>applications and horsepower, the less a thin client appeals. Also, if you do
>want to sell the units later, certainly regular PC's ("fat clients") will
>sell easier.....

usage will be only web surfing and web based email

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

me@privacy.net wrote:
>>It's not *the* way. It's *one* way. I agree with the others in that you
>>first have to decide what will be done on systems in the cafe. The more
>>applications and horsepower, the less a thin client appeals. Also, if you do
>>want to sell the units later, certainly regular PC's ("fat clients") will
>>sell easier.....
>
>
> usage will be only web surfing and web based email

If those are your only two purposes, Linux may be worth looking into.
It's fairly simple to setup Gnome or KDE in such a way that even the
most computer illiterate person can use it. You won't need to lose any
sleep over either spyware or viruses and your software costs will be
down dramatically.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Good point. OpenOffice, Firefox (or Mozilla), GIMP, etc. on Linux make for a
very inexpensive and effective computing environment as long as people are not
completely anal about compatibility with Microsoft Office formats and Word/Excel
Basic macros and all the other lock-in features... Ben Myers.

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 23:39:50 GMT, Nicholas Andrade <sdnick484@nospam.yahoo.com>
wrote:

>me@privacy.net wrote:
>>>It's not *the* way. It's *one* way. I agree with the others in that you
>>>first have to decide what will be done on systems in the cafe. The more
>>>applications and horsepower, the less a thin client appeals. Also, if you do
>>>want to sell the units later, certainly regular PC's ("fat clients") will
>>>sell easier.....
>>
>>
>> usage will be only web surfing and web based email
>
>If those are your only two purposes, Linux may be worth looking into.
>It's fairly simple to setup Gnome or KDE in such a way that even the
>most computer illiterate person can use it. You won't need to lose any
>sleep over either spyware or viruses and your software costs will be
>down dramatically.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Ben Myers wrote:
> Good point. OpenOffice, Firefox (or Mozilla), GIMP, etc. on Linux make for a
> very inexpensive and effective computing environment as long as people are not
> completely anal about compatibility with Microsoft Office formats and Word/Excel
> Basic macros and all the other lock-in features... Ben Myers.
>
Not to mention you can use CrossOver Office if you need a machine with
true MS Office. Furthermore, if you need to lock down user permissions,
I'd go *NIX any day of the week over MS. Actually one good environment
for the internet cafe is Sun Java Desktop; it's build on Gnome, has an
Windows feel, and a very good interface to lockdown users (their target
was corporate desktops). With very little tweaking you'd have a system
safe from everything except 0-day exploits (and updating all your
programs at once to the latest version can be done in one command in Linux).

 

[ME]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

>> usage will be only web surfing and web based email
>
>If those are your only two purposes, Linux may be worth looking into.

Not disagreeing with you on Linux.... but I still need
to buy hardware. Hence my questions abt Optiplexes