GHCA's Linux-based Computer Network

Mr. Surran's Original Blog Post Regarding Our Upgrade to Thin Client Technology

Originally written on 06/20/2009

I've been hinting for a while now about a major secret project I'm working on, and now I'm ready to reveal what that project is. It is nothing less than the complete rebuild of the GHCA Computer Lab!

Our computer lab has been feeling its age for the last couple of years. While our computers, new in 2002, are still plenty fast enough for our needs, the equipment itself was starting to fail at an increasing rate. We were particularly plagued by a batch of bad capacitors that flooded the market during the time our computers were built. The cost of maintaining our computer lab, as well as our staff network, was seen in an increasing repair budget allotted for purchasing new parts. Then the economy tanked.

This is when a miracle came our way. Some individuals in the business world, who wish to rename anonymous, took interest in our school and our computer science programs and technology. This group has a huge inventory of used equipment that they have made available to us. Now I know what you might be thinking - "used" usually means "junk." Believe me, I know! Over the years I've collected lots of "junk" in order to provide the school with technology while saving it money. However, this time is different.

Earlier this year our school was provided with enough LCD monitors to replace all of our bulky CRT monitors. An LCD monitor takes up much less room, has a sharper picture, and uses less electricity. The monitors we received are high-quality 17" Dells, not junk by any standard. If you've been following my blog, then you already knew this. What you didn't know is that we are also receiving actual computer technology from our "private investor" that will replace our old, bulky computer towers in our lab this summer!

What has made this a very interesting (and intense) project for me is that what we are receiving are not computers in the traditional sense. They lack a number of features that many people have come to expect in a computer: they have no CD, DVD, or even hard drive, nor are they expandable by internal slots. They have a different CPU than most store-bought computers. In fact, they are in some ways slower than the computers they will be replacing! You may be wondering why that makes me excited. Well, just let's say that the benefits far outweigh any steps backwards that we may be taking by switching to these very special computers called thin clients.

Before I list the numerous benefits of switching to thin clients, let me explain why this has been challenging for me personally. You see, a thin client really isn't designed to be used as a normal computer. They are usually used for very specific purposes. For example, when you go to the library and access their computerized book catalog, that terminal often is a thin client, since it only needs to do that one specific task. Before I could even accept this generous gift as an option for our computer lab, I needed to know that we could actually use these thin clients as though they were full-blown computers, just like our old computers. Thankfully, I have a very powerful tool in my arsenal- Linux. Linux, and in particular the distribution of Linux called Gentoo, allows me to build a full-fledged operating system and applications that are specifically tuned to the unique hardware of our thin clients. Because of this, these thin clients not only work just as well as the full-sized computers they replace, but they actually exceed those older machines in areas that are important to us, like Internet access. Needless to say, building a custom operating system for such a unique piece of hardware is challenging and requires lots of research and development, but it's a task that suits my particular talents, and the rewards of success are numerous!

Allow me to list some of the benefits of switching to thin clients in the GHCA Computer Lab:

• Size - A thin client is a small fraction of the size of a typical desktop tower. I can fit about 8 thin clients in the same volume of a single tower computer case. The small size of the thin client, combined with the small size of our new LCD monitors, provides lots of extra room for students to work. It also allows easier viewing of our projector screen at the front of the room. And, though this isn't the biggest deal of all, they do look so much better!
• Power Consumption - By replacing our desktop PCs and CRT monitors with thin clients and LCDs, we are able to decrease the power consumption of our computer lab by tenfold! This results in a savings of approximately $500 per year just on electricty costs! Less power consumption also results in less heat being generated, which is an important consideration in the months that surround summer. While the paint and new carpet in our computer lab remains blue, our computers are now "green"!
• Silent Operation - On a good day, the old computer lab was very loud. Desktop computers often have three fans each, as well as spinning hard drive platters. Multiply that by 20, and noise becomes a serious issue. Our aging computers had fans with bad bearings, thus many of our computers "moaned." It's enough to drive a teacher or student batty! Thin clients, on the other hand, have no moving parts! They are passively cooled (no fans) and use solid state drives instead of mechanical hard drives. This means that they are 100% silent! The difference in the computer lab is amazing, and I'm looking forward to a totally different environment to teach in.
• Reliability - Interestingly enough, thin clients can actually be more expensive than full-blown desktops. This is due to a number of reasons, but one reason in particular is reliability. These thin clients are built solid. They are like the "John Deere" of computers - built to last. We are receiving enough of these units so that we'll have spares that we can quickly swap in should one unlikely fail.
• Price - Thanks to our donors (if you are reading this, you have my sincerest "Thank You!!"), this equipment has been provided to GHCA 100% free of charge! Like I said earlier, in the past "free" has meant "junk", but not this time! I thank the Lord for opening the doors to make this all possible.

One other benefit that isn't directly related to thin clients but is a side-effect of this donation is that we now have an inventory of good computer parts to keep the staff network, which uses typical desktop computers, operational for years to come. This summer I've been operating a "chop shop" where I stripped the original computer lab towers of any good parts they have, and the cache of spare parts I've harvested from them has allowed us to slash our computer repair budget by 3/4. This along with the already mentioned electricity savings has allowed GHCA to save thousands of dollars in computer operational costs next year!

I end this blog on this note - times are changing. I once thought of the fact that our computer lab lacked CD-ROM drives as a negative. Now CD-ROMs and even DVDs are becoming obsolete in favor for portable USB drives (which our new thin clients support). The power that a computer needs is also less as more and more applications move to the Internet. Someday the fact of whether you run Windows or Linux as an operating system will be irrelevant, and that day may be here sooner than anyone expected. What will matter is whether or not your computer can run a good web browser like Firefox and has a fast Internet connection. The thin client was designed with the idea of a server doing the brunt of the work, and today that server IS the Internet! Our switch to thin clients lines up perfectly with the move to cloud computing that is changing the world as you read this!

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