Comment Great for thin clients (maybe much lower TCO) (Score 1) 206
Have a look at WindowsCE-based thin clients like the HP T5500. I just bought one for $100 on eBay and it probably has all I will need to run hosted MS Office without the hassle of maintaining a Windows desktop. It can surf stand-alone, independent of any Terminal Server, via my cable/DSL router. It also makes a pretty decide RDP or ICA client and VT terminal emulator.
I would not recommend this for multimedia, games, or anything high-end, but for hosted Office or AJAX-type apps it should work fine, and it looks and feels like WinXP so MS junkies will be less likely to gag at the idea.
The biggest problem with Windows is fragile/buggy desktop configs. Yank the desktop, problem solved (mostly). My Windows Server 2003 boxes at work, home, and ISP godaddy.com have never failed me in over a year of regular usage. I avoid certain aspects including MS Exchange and heavy dependence on AD.
I would not recommend this for multimedia, games, or anything high-end, but for hosted Office or AJAX-type apps it should work fine, and it looks and feels like WinXP so MS junkies will be less likely to gag at the idea.
The biggest problem with Windows is fragile/buggy desktop configs. Yank the desktop, problem solved (mostly). My Windows Server 2003 boxes at work, home, and ISP godaddy.com have never failed me in over a year of regular usage. I avoid certain aspects including MS Exchange and heavy dependence on AD.
