[OLPC Networking] re: Thin clients (was: Networking Digest, Vol 8, Issue 4)

[MBurns]

On 10/22/06, Roland Sassen (using mozilla) <sassen at thinsia.com> wrote:
>
> I think the design goal has nothing to do with thin client technology That
> this scenario is impossible with thin clients is not true.
>

It has to do with thin client technology in that the laptop would (using
Thin Client tech) be inherently tied to a central server. Access to the
(presumably) school server, or the Internet at large, is not a guaranteed or
assumed thing under the accepted use cases. These children are suppose to be
able to fully use their laptops without any form of network connectivity.
This makes relying on a server quite impossible.

You might have missed the first reason to use thin client technology: to
> prevent *all security issues with end-point-devices.* You seem not to have
> an alternative here yet.
>

There are alternatives, but it must be addressed in a case-by-case basis.
Thin clients do things in such a way that end-point security is greatly
simplified, I agree. The fact that they do not fit well within our
environment defeats this purpose.

As you can combine thin client technology with local programs run from
> EPROM, there is no technical reason not to use server-based computing. You
> will even save money, because you do not need a hard-disk.
>

We are not using a hard drisk, but I think you are referring to the flash
memory here. The EEPROM (if I understand correctly: the BIOS/OpenFirmware
chips) is already going to be quite full of software for various low-level
troubleshooting, booting and installing procedures. If we disregarded that,
and moved to this Thin Client approach, some of that could be removed most
likely, but I don't think we could get the end result you are envisioning.

For instance, if we have local programs, what do they run in? A linux system
that runs natively, and then we have a mashup of local programs from BIOS
and remote programs from the central server?

I do not think you want to provide the people of Africa with on-demand video
> yet, I think :-) ?
>

Why not? :)

In honesty, the laptops will now have web cameras and some form of
microphone for voice and video chat capabilities. Having this run through a
central server (as it must with thin clients) would create significant
bandwidth streams on a limited, shared-medium network.

Michael, this (deprecating) is not true. This might be a speculation of some
> people. But it is not true.
> Novell will support NetWare for at least until 2015<http://business.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/03/21/1537231&tid=18>,
> and there is no reason to
> deprecate the at the moment best netware operating system in the world.
>

This is a bit off-topic, but I will do a final followup. Novell has said it
will support NetWare 6.5 through 2015, as any enterprise provider would
(long term support of existing software), but the next line of your article
says that Novell has specifically announced no plans to continue
development, only to support the demands and needs of customers. There are
no plans, as the article says, for a NetWare 7.0.

There is nothing in the Linux operating system what is not implemented
> technically better in the NetWare operating system. You can read why
> customers with NetWare do not want or need Linux , here<http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/netware/2006/1016nw2.html>
>

I don't necessarily agree. But I will say that being the best on technical
merits, as we often see in the computing field, rarely has anything to do
with market share, adoption rate, or success.

Using thin-client technology you can support your customers with any system
> or service, instead of
> the Linux lock-in.
>

We are providing a complete solution, so diversification with other
operating systems does not need to be a goal. What will end up being an
end-to-end coherent Open Source technology in the laptop is an advantage,
not a limitation, of the project.

For what it is worth, other operating systems and Linux distributions have
had various chatter (IIRC) about porting to the laptop. With the
documentation we are getting, and the open standards and Open Source we are
using (python, for instance), having OpenBSD or Ubuntu as drop-in
replacements is not out of the question... Though I don't foresee it being
an Approved Option to be sold to countries.

For the local programs, without a hard-drive, an interesting option is the
> ZOHO suite.
>
> Raju Vegesna of Advenetnet <http://www.adventnet.com/>, maker of the Zoho<http://www.zoho.com/>suite, said:
> 10.16.2006
>
> "You can expect a FULL co-operation from Zoho on the one pc a child
> initiative. We are willing to provide required Zoho aplications for FREE for
> the one pc a child project."
>

That is very generous of them to offer.

--
Michael Burns
Oregon State University
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