OT: Thin Clients, Anybody know anything Options

[Qarl]

Looking to upgrade one of our offices. It has 30 PCs that are about 5 years old.

Everybody runs the same crap.

Microsoft office
Adobe Acrobat
Internet Explorer
Terminal Emulaton programs
Anti-virus software.

Looking at thin-clients as a replacement solution (less IT management of each PC).

How does software licensing work? I know you have to have the terminal server with enough client access licenses for each machine?

What if I wanted to run Microsoft Office? How does licensing work? Do you buy one license (since you only really running one copy?), or do you have to have some sort of user license of each terminal running it?

Same question for other applications.

Anybody with any real world experience?

Thanks.

[skline]

Well, being Citrix certified since 1994 and certified in Windows Terminal services, I am not going to say anything except, if it is set up and configured correctly, which I have seldom seen out in the field, it is a great option and works great. Having redundant servers will keep you from having a panic attack when the main server crashes. Like I said before, if you do it right, there isnt that much that can go wrong. I wont even mention how many networks I have gone in to repair that were built by so called professional network engineers that didnt even have DNS setup correctly. Certified also doesnt mean expert. I have 12 years of on the job working in the field on corporate networks to go with my certs. I have seen it all.

Ghost is how a lot of people get around licensing but you also need to have a license for each computer you use it on. Thereby costing you more in the long run for software that only the admins use. Not really cost effective. It has its place however, I use it all the time.