What is the best thin client for OS X?

MarvinMarvin
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
The quad G5 is powerful but hardly any apps use all the power. Most of the time, only half of it is being used. There is also a guy at work with a slow G4 powerbook so I was wondering if there was a thin client like you get for Linux that lets multiple users use the same machine.



I don't exactly know how thin clients work. If they operate like VNC stuff, which I imagine they must do then it's no good because the screen updates are too slow.



If that's the case, I'd consider replacing the quad G5 with 2 dual core G5 towers. They are roughly the same price but what is Apple's policy on that? The quad is about 2 months old so I guess I'd probably have to sell it. Apple don't have a trading scheme do they?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    thinkingdifferentthinkingdifferent Posts: 1,604member
    You can enable SSH and allow other's to login but they will only be able to work in a UNIX shell environment. I am not sure if OSX supports multiple remote desktops. You might be able to do this using XWindows.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    rminklerrminkler Posts: 50member
    Thin clients work great on Linux and Unix - anywhere that X11 is used - because X11 does graphics locally in the same exact way that it does graphics over a network. OS X does not work like this, so implementing a thin client solution might be harder.
  • Reply 3 of 3
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,322moderator
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ThinkingDifferent

    You can enable SSH and allow other's to login but they will only be able to work in a UNIX shell environment.



    Yeah, I thought that might be the case. I need graphics stuff too.



    Quote:

    Originally posted by rminklerThin clients work great on Linux and Unix - anywhere that X11 is used - because X11 does graphics locally in the same exact way that it does graphics over a network. OS X does not work like this, so implementing a thin client solution might be harder.



    Maybe that's one thing Apple should look at in future. It seems like really useful technology. It would have been ideal for the small office where I work.
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