User experience is all that matters (Score 1)

I'm doing this exact thing in a series of labs around arizona,USA. Through years of experience I can tell you not to go with these thin desktops. Go for features, go for KDE. It'll run reasonably well on half the power you're throwing at it but even if it did lag, you'd still want it because your users are probably used to M$, and if you ever have to say "well, this system doesn't do that"........You're cooked.
These people you're selling the thing to are not slashdotters. They just want pretty.