[GRLUG] Amerisure ditches its PCs, goes all virtual

[Adam Tauno Williams]

On Tue, 2010-04-06 at 15:45 -0400, Casey DuBois wrote:
> One of our customers is doing this sort of thing but not purchasing
> thin clients, they are just re-purposing OLD computers.
> Are there any Open Source options to do this sort of thing?
> Thinking Schools could benefit.

So he eliminated ~800 (maybe ~$0.5M in hardware) desktops and installed
60 servers (with ESX) [probably about $250,000 up front] and spend ~$2
million on Citrix licenses.  Nope, we don't do that.  Because the ROI is
somewhere in the sub-basement or maybe the sewer pipes;   I wish it
wasn't since managing PCs sucks - but thin-clients are expensive and
limited.  Thin clients require the *same* software license as thick
clients [you still gotta buy the same M$-Office license] + the several
layers of licensing on the server side + the cooling and rack capacity
for *60* servers.  The power point he used to sell this project to his
board must have been awesome.

I've been pro-thin-client since the first time I used an IBM X-station.
But they don't make sense.