Letters to the editor

Sun Rays

Sir:

Regarding Mr. Brook's letter (http://lwn.net/Articles/126572/) 
of 7 March 2005 (LWN Weekly, 10 March 2005)

In the conclusion section, we see:

> A Sun Ray user interrupted at work can, for example, pull
> her java card from the machine she is working on, cross the country to
> another office, plug the card into a machine there, and continue typing
> where she left off.

Your correspondant retorts:

> The trick with the SunRay is nice, and looks really cool, but is
> hardly worth the money in 99% of cases. Ask Sun how much more your
> network infrastructure costs when you've set it up to arbitrarily
> pipe video all over the country.  

As a Sun Ray administrator (and private owner) I can personally tell
you the following:

- Yes, your server infrastructure is higher; however since you are not
  putting $2000 computers on everyone's desks any more, these higher
  costs get recouped much faster than you realize.

- Sun Rays do very well over low bandwidth links -- I have personally
  run my Sun Ray at home over a VPN link yielding less than 250Kb/s
  with acceptable performance.  OK, I'm not going to play a movie
  or music over this link, but as a comparison a typical X application
  on a Sun Ray over such a link is far more usable than the same X
  application directly forwarded to a display on the same network.

Over all it is amazing how _little_ money this solution actually
requires and how well it can operate on exiting (presumably already
paid-for) infrastructure.

Since I have adopted a Sun Ray as my primary desktop at the office,
and a Sun Ray at home (connected to a local computer), I hardly ever
use my laptop any more.  Sun Rays are an elegent solution to many
of computing's logistical and financial challenges.

-- 
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