The future of the Linux Terminal Server Project (Linux.com) [LWN.net]

The future of the Linux Terminal Server Project (Linux.com)

Posted Sep 23, 2006 22:55 UTC (Sat) by mrons (subscriber, #1751)
In reply to: The future of the Linux Terminal Server Project (Linux.com) by arcticwolf
Parent article: The future of the Linux Terminal Server Project (Linux.com)

I've been using LTSP since it began, and my own home grown version before that.

Essentually, you take a low powered workstation and make it boot a linux kernel over the net. The kernel will have an NFS root and /usr filesystem and (optionally) network swap.

You then fire up an Xserver on the workstation and point it at a remote display manager (xdm,gdm,kdm) which will give you a login screen. Users login to this system and run their applications there, remotely displaying back to their workstation.

LTSP installs on an existing linux/Unix box and provides, to the workstations, an NFS root and /usr filesystems, a linux kernel and initrd, various X servers, and various tools for managing multiple workstations. There are also several enhancements to take advantage of any "local devices" the workstation may have.

So LTSP is an implementation, and enhancement, of the old idea of an X Terminal. It is also built with Free software.

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