Attention!!! Terminal Server Admins and Road Warriors.

"Cloudbook" for MS "cloud computing?"

Ever since i started managing Terminal Services via a cell phone, wanted a form factor that did not split the screen into 5 pieces. My wait may be over in January. At 400 USD it may be the value product of 2008. Where does the line to the check out counter begin? Could the situation become similar to Wal Mart offering the 199 USD, "gOS" based desktop unit just this November? Sold out in days. Good news is that they got some product back on the shelves quickly.

Recently downloaded the gOS and tested it on an OLD desktop. The OS has some limitations out of the box but is more than adequate for 90-95% of the market. Was curious if you could add the RDP client to the "gOS" and the answer is yes. It worked. You can read my post regarding "gOS" further down on this blog.

But wait, it also a phone and supports Skype. It can drive a overhead projector and both can now fit into the same case. Just may have to get one of these devices.

From LinuxDevices.Com December 9, 2007

Everex has confirmed plans to ship a UMPC (ultra-mobile PC) with a 7-inch screen, similar to competitor Asus's EEE PC. A source close to the company revealed that the device -- codenamed "Cloudbook" -- will ship with the Google Apps-oriented "gOS" Linux distribution early next year.


According to our anonymous source, the initial Cloudbook model will be powered by a Via C7 ULVwebcam. In general, the hardware appears to closely resemble Via's Nanobook design.

Preceding the Cloudbook's mid-January launch, Everex plans to ship a "Developer" version equipped with a touchscreen, our source revealed. That version will come with gOStoolchains, similar to the gOS development board. gOS is an Everex-sponsored Linux distribution optimized for use with Google Apps.

Everex itself officially confirmed the Cloudbook's UMPC with a 7-inch screen. Our source suggested that Everex would likely launch the Cloudbook at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas the week of Jan. 7, with consumer availability as soon as Jan. 15.

The Developer edition will launch earlier -- possibly on January first. It was originally scheduled for earlier release, but was reportedly delayed by short supplies in the market for 7-inch touchscreens.

"Standard" Cloudbook

The Cloudbook appears to be FIC/Everex's answer to Asus's EEE PC, another ultra-mobile Linux-powered PC that began shipping earlier this fall. Like the EEE PC, the Cloudbook will use a 7-inch WVGA (800x480) LCD display, along with an identical keyboard, albeit in a different color, our source close to the company said.

That's where the similarities end, though. The EEE PC uses a 900MHz CeleronCloudbook will use a Via C7 ULV (ultra-low voltage), clocked at 1.2GHz. And, instead of the EEE PC's 4GB SSD (solid-state disk), the Cloudbook will pack in a 30GB hard disk drive.

Other preliminary Cloudbook specs confirmed by our source include 512MB of RAM, built-in wired and wireless Ethernet interfaces, a 4-in-1 card reader, a pair of USBDVI-out. Thanks to DVI-to-HDMI and other available converters, the Cloudbook should "hook up to most multimedia equipment," said our source, citing projectors and TVs with digital interfaces.

Developer edition

Unlike standard Cloudbook models, the Developer edition will include a touchscreen interface. It will also include some kind of expansion interface for modules that will include a webcam, cordless Skype phone, and retro LCD alarm clock module.

The Developer model appears to serve two intents for Everex. The company likely plans to add a touchscreen to second-generation Cloudbook models, and hopes to ensure the best touchscreen support possible in gOS by offering developers of gOS'sNokia's 770 Internet tablet several years ago.

Another intent is to offer open source community developers a chance to get their applications on what could prove to be a very popular device, if the EEE PC is any indication. Our source said, "[Everex] will take some apps [developed by the community] to market with the next iteration of the unit, creating instant business opportunities."

Availability

The standard Cloudbook is expected to ship on Jan. 15, priced at $400 with a 30GB hard drive. The touchscreen-enabled Developer Unit should arrive a few weeks early, possibly on Jan. 1, at an as-yet unknown price.

Until the next post,

Steve

Is Linux ready for Prime Time?

Over the past year i have posted about the growing awareness of PC alternatives. Steven puts them all together in one article. Is the Microsoft PC dead? No. But choice is good.

From Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

at Desktoplinux.com

Dec. 07, 2007

Opinion -- Sometimes, several unrelated changes come to a head at the same time, with a result no one could have predicted. The PC market is at such a tipping point right now and the result will be millions of Linux-powered PCs in users' hands.

The first change was the continued maturation of desktop Linux. Today, no one can argue with a straight face that people can't get their work done on Linux-powered PCs. Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, MEPIS, OpenSUSE, Xandros, Linspire Mint, the list goes on and on of desktop Linuxes that PC owner can use without knowing a thing about Linux's technical side. People can argue that Vista or Mac OS X is better, but when Michael Dell runs Ubuntu Linux on one of his own home systems, it can't be said that Linux isn't a real choice for anyone's desktop.

Another change occurred when Nicholas Negroponte proposed the so-called $100-laptop, the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) machine. He couldn't get them built for quite that price -- they cost about $200 -- but that's still remarkably cheap and they're available today.

Not long after OLPC was announced, Intel and other companies came up with their own take on an inexpensive PC: the Classmate PC. By 2007, it had become clear that you could build a laptop that was good enough to run desktop Linux for about $200.

That gave other hardware vendors an idea. If you could build a no-frills PCs that ran Linux, why not make sub-$500 computers with a bit more power and sell them to consumers? That's exactly what Asus did with its Xandros Linux-powered ASUS Eee UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC), which lists for about $400. At about the same time, Everex introduced its gOS TC2502 gPC. Available first only from Wal-Mart, these $199 desktop systems are also now also available from ZaReason, an open-source VAR.

And how are these sub $500 computers and laptops doing? Everex is building them as fast as it can and has announced that its forthcoming laptop version, the CloudBook, has already been picked up by a major U.S. reseller. At the same time, according to an unconfirmed report, ASUS is planning on selling 3.8 million Eees in its next fiscal year.

While all this has been going on, broadband Internet connectivity has become almost as easily available as cell phone coverage. It is a small town indeed where there's not some kind of free Wi-Fi available at a local coffee shop or library. You may have to pay for Wi-Fi at the airport or in your hotel, but Wi-Fi is almost always there. And, at home, well I'm living on a rural mountain overlooking a national forest and I have 3M-bps DSL coming in to my house.

Google has made billions from this simple fact. It's not just about search and ads anymore, though. Google has found that there's a big demand for its office Google Apps. And not just from home users; Capgemini, a multibillion dollar international consulting company, is using GAPE (Google Apps Premier Edition) for one of its offices.

Four trends: user-friendly Linux desktops, useful under-$500 laptops and desktops, near-universal broadband, and business-ready Internet office applications. Put them together and you have a revolution.

For the last two decades, we've been buying expensive desktop operating systems on business PCs running from $1,000 to $2,000. On those systems, we've been putting pricey desktop-centric office suites like Microsoft Office. That's a lot of money, and the convergence of the above trends is about to knock it for a loop.

Here's the business case. You tell me if it's not compelling. You can buy 100 $500 PCs running a free version of Linux, hook them to a high-speed Internet connection for a $1,000 a year and use GAPE at $50 per user account per year. Finally, we'll throw in a grand for a Linux server. That's $57,000 for your equipment, your connectivity, your operating system and your applications.

Now, let's say you want to run Vista Business. First, you'll need 100 PCs that can run it. The cheapest deal I can find today for machines I'd consider adequate for Vista Business, which is to say they must have at least 2GB of RAM, is for the Dell OptiPlex 320 at $707 a PC. Of course -- unlike with Linux, which always includes an office suite, OpenOffice -- for those times when the Internet is down, you'll need to buy an office suite. If you went with Microsoft Standard 2007, with a little shopping you can get it for the upgrade price of about $200 per copy. So, on the PC side alone, we're looking at $90,700.

All done? Not quite. To get the most from Microsoft Office 2007, you really need to be operating it with a minimum of Microsoft Server 2003 ($4,994 base price plus 100 CALs (client access licenses)), Exchange 2007 ($7,399 base price plus 100 CALs) and SharePoint 2007 ($13,824 base price plus 100 standard CALS). If you're running Windows you probably already have Server, so we won't count it. Throw in another two grand for the Exchange 2007 and SharePoint 2007 servers, and a grand for the Internet connection, and (insert sound of old-fashioned adding machine) the final total is $114,923.

So, by my calculations, all those trends have joined together to make a Linux-based small business using Google applications instead of Exchange and SharePoint cost less than half its Microsoft-based twin.

Worse still, if you're Microsoft, you can't really defend yourself. Linux desktops run just dandy on low-end, under-$500 PCs. Vista Basic, which comes the closest to being able to run on these systems, is unacceptable since it doesn't support business networking. Office 2007 also won't run worth a darn on these systems. And somehow, I can't see Microsoft optimizing its applications to work with Google Apps instead of Exchange and SharePoint.

Put it all together, and here's what I see happening. In the next few quarters, low-end Linux-based PCs are going to quickly take over the bottom rung of computing. Then, as businesses continue to get comfortable with SAAS (software as a service) and open-source software, the price benefits will start leading them toward switching to the new Linux/SAAS office model.

You'll see this really kick into gear once Vista Service Pack 1 appears and business customers start seriously looking at what it will cost to migrate to Vista. That Tiffany-level price tag will make all but the most Microsoft-centric businesses start considering the Linux/SAAS alternative.

Microsoft will fight this trend tooth and nail. It will cut prices to the point where it'll be bleeding ink on some of its product lines. And Windows XP is going to stick around much longer than Microsoft ever wanted it to. Still, it won't be enough. By attacking from the bottom, where Microsoft can no longer successfully compete, Linux will finally cut itself a large slice of the desktop market pie.


-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Until the next post,

Steve

I have had a couple of NComputing devices on the test bench for more than year. Even wrote a post for this blog (nComputing, More than meets the eye) a year ago September. They are simple and they work.

How many SBC vendors can issue a Press Release that states 7,000 servers on the way with another 13,000 due to be delivered? And about 160,000 connections to those 20,000 devices! And are in the price range that a education system can afford to buy new. Not many, if any.

From C/Net news.com:

November 16, 2007 4:03 PM PST

Macedonia picks Ubuntu for 20,000 PCs

Posted by Stephen Shankland

NComputing's products let multiple people share the same PC.

(Credit: NComputing)

A batch of 7,000 PCs with Ubuntu Linux have been sent to Macedonian schools, the first of a collection that Ubuntu sponsor Canonical expects will reach 20,000.

Through a program called Computer for Every Child, the Macedonia Ministry of Education and Science plans to install the PCs throughout its elementary and secondary school system. Ubuntu will run on the 20,000 PCs, but 160,000 more students will be able to share those machines using hardware from NComputing, Canonical plans to announce Tuesday. The PCs are being supplied and installed by Haier, a Chinese PC maker.

"The Computer for Every Child initiative is the largest and most important education project undertaken in the 15-year history of the Republic of Macedonia," said Ivo Ivanovski, Macedonia's minister for the information society, in a statement. "By selecting Ubuntu as the operating system for all of our classroom virtual PCs, our education system can provide computer-based education for all schoolchildren within the limited financial and infrastructural confines that most institutions face today."

The schools are using version 7.04 of Edubuntu, a version of Ubuntu tailored for classroom use.

With PCs already commonplace in richer countries, companies such as Intel, Microsoft, and Canonical are focusing on reaching markets in developing countries.

Until the next post,

Steve

I personally have an interest in building a computing device with an embedded OS that can be both a fat and thin client and operate with no internal storage. Have communicated with a manufacture that can deliver a complete unit for less than 100 USD. But while searching for that type of unit, found the press release for the "Wal Mart, Everex, gOS, Google, Skype, Open Office, Ubuntu" 200 USD PC .

It has been published that Wal-Mart started selling on November 1 st, a "gOS" based PC with an inventory of 10,000 units. Less than two weeks later it was published that the warehouse was empty, but there may be a few units on store shelves. Sales at about 1,000 units a day may not seem like much to Wal-Mart, but in my opinion that would constitute a very successful test run.

Dowloaded the gOS for testing an added the ability to access a Microsoft Terminal Server using RDP. Of course the underlying OS is Ubuntu 7.10 and it has about 20,000 more applications that may be added. Below is review by Ducan Riley.

From Techcrunch.com on November 4, 2007.

gOS: Where Computers Are Headed?

Duncan Riley

We reported Thursday on the gPC going on sale at Wal-Mart, a $199 bare minimum PC that runs a Linux package by the name of gOS. Unlike some initial reports suggested, this isn’t the long fabled Google Operating System, but the folks behind it most definitely had Google on their mind.

In an interview at Fsckin, David Liu, founder of the gOS project gave some indication of what they are trying to achieve:

I got interested in Google applications, especially docs and spreadsheets, presentations; and originally, I wanted to create my idea of what a Google OS would look like.. if there were such a mythical OS. As I started looking around at all the Google applications out there, I realized that all of our “computing” could eventually be done in the Google cloud. We just needed an OS that looked really good and pointed people to Google in a really friendly, intelligent way. After seeing this, I got excited because I saw it was also commercially viable for the mainstream end user… Google makes Linux familiar.

gOS is billed as “Linux for human beings who shop at Wal-Mart” but how does it really stack up? gOS is available for download so I gave it whirl under VMWare Fusion to see if we are seeing the future of PCs.

Not your usual Linux desktop

The most obvious difference in gOS to a usual Linux install is the use of the Enlightenment windows manager as opposed to the more commonly used Gnome and KDE managers. KDE and Gnome in a standard install look and feel a little like Windows, Enlightenment looks a bit like OS X, complete with the rounded window open/ close buttons to the left of each window.

A dock bar runs across the bottom and provides links to a range of Google tools, Meebo, Skype, Wikipedia, Facebook and a couple of OS specific apps. A Google search box is embedded in the desktop in the top right corner.

A leaf icon bottom left opens up a familiar Windows style menu, complete with program short cuts and settings options. Interestingly the Live CD comes with Open Office, despite the emphasis on Google apps elsewhere.

It Works

I tested a number of Google apps and they all work, pretty much as they would on any machine. Apps are delivered via Firefox. The only drawback I found is one of aesthetics: the standard font pack in gOS doesn’t make for the nicest online experience, but many wouldn’t notice.

The dock shortcuts are handy, and will probably be more appreciated by those who aren’t highly computer literate, like those who cant save a bookmark or type in a web page…perhaps that’s a little bit harsh but most people don’t need gigantic shortcut buttons.

The Future?

This isn’t a PC anyone reading this article will likely buy, the specs are low and if you’re competent enough to read blogs then you can use an operating system that isn’t gOS. It is however an interesting exercise in where computers may well be heading. In a range of areas, web apps are now the equal to their offline equivalents, or are quickly catching up. If we get to the point where we can do the majority of our activites via an online interface, the need for all-powerful operating systems and computers diminishes. gPC and gOS is a nice try, and for people out in middle America looking for a cheap second or third PC for their kids to do their homework on, or conversely to do their own work on as their kids are using the main PC for gaming, its a pretty good buy. This is very much a first generation, or perhaps even 0.1 effort, but going forward it’s an option we will see more and more of. In 10, 15 or even 20 years time, when the idea of locally installed applications may be foreign, the likes of gOS may well be the norm.

This blogger post is being written using the gOS installed on a old Dell. You can download a version of gOS by clicking here. You will need to have the ability to create a bootable CD from an ISO image. You can also buy a motherboard and memory to build a PC device with the gOS and you can view that information here.

There is published information that Everex and Wal-Mart may introduce a sub 300 USD notebook in the first quarter of 2008. I suggest they start with more than 10,000 units. May want to add a 0 to the right side and bump the number on the left.

Bake this. Start with a sub 300 USD notebook and a sub 300 USD UMPC. Add WiFi and WiMax capabilities. Can boot from a removable drive. Have the ability to run applications online with a software as a service vendor and offline with locally stored and executed applications. Make wireless phone calls.View several types of video. Make a video. Publish the video and other content. Let bake for 12 to 24 months. Serve well done.

Until the next post,

Steve

WiMax reaching Critical Mass

Cisco Buys WiMax Startup

The networking giant has agreed to buy WiMax base station maker Navini Networks for $330 million.

From: Peter Sayer, IDG News Service

Cisco Systems Inc. has agreed to buy Navini Networks Inc., a developer of WiMax broadband wireless access systems.

The US$330 million deal marks Cisco's first foray into the technology: Earlier this month, Cisco dismissed rumors that it planned to buy Navini, saying it had no plans to develop wireless base stations using any technology other than Wi-Fi.

Navini makes mobile WiMax wireless base stations.

Wi-Fi and WiMax are wireless networking technologies defined in standards set by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Inc. WiMax (802.16) has a range over a hundred times greater than the older and more widely deployed Wi-Fi (802.11) family of standards.

Cisco said it is particularly interested in Navini's expertise with "smart beamforming" technologies used with Multiple-Input, Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna arrays, which in Wi-Fi systems allow base stations to handle much higher data throughput.

Cisco plans to fold Navini into its wireless networking business unit. It expects the acquisition, its 124th, to close by the end of January.

Until the next post,

Steve

Truck fleet replaces two-way radio with 3G and thin clients

Posted on Computerworld Australia

By Sandra Rossi 04/10/2007 10:47:01

Furniture removalist company MiniMovers is in the business of mobility. With a fleet of more than 100 trucks and support vehicles operating across the eastern states of Australia, its communication system has to be as mobile as the furniture.

As a result, the company decided to replace its two-way radio system with a 3G network.

According to MiniMovers IT manager, Jason Arthur, the business had experienced annual growth of more than 40 percent over the last five years.

"We had captured 95 percent of the short distance domestic moving market in south east Queensland and we recently set up operations in Melbourne which is a fairly mature market," Arthur said.

"Our next move was to take on the Sydney market. To do this we needed to improve job management processes by upgrading our mobile communications technology."

Arthur said the two-way radio system was only good for its Brisbane operations.

In Melbourne, the fleet coordinator communicated with drivers via mobile phone as two-way radio transmission from the company's Brisbane-based depot did not extend to the Gold Coast, Melbourne or Sydney.

"Communicating with drivers via mobile phone was expensive and unsustainable," Arthur said.

"We needed a mobile solution that would enable drivers to receive job information quickly and reliably. We wanted to streamline job management and deliver productivity gains."

To determine whether 3G was the solution, the company conducted a trial arming selected staff with 3 Mobile broadband cards and thin client PC terminals.

"We could see immediately that the cards and mobile PC terminals would deliver big productivity and cost savings to the business," Arthur said.

MiniMovers made the decision to fit out its entire fleet with thin client terminals and 3 broadband cards providing 10 senior staff with laptops and 3 cards.

The company also deployed a 3 mobile broadband card in one of its Melbourne depots where no fixed phone line was available.

"Using wireless mobile instead of fixed lines saved the company in costly line rental expenses and gave users the flexibility to connect anywhere, anytime," Arthur said.

"It is actually cheaper for us to use broadband cards and mobile phones in our depots than ADSL and landlines."

The PC terminals in the trucks connect to the company's central database via 3's network. Using the PC's touch screen, the drivers can access the job management system. All administrative tasks, such as billing, job status updates and customer service reports, can be done anywhere.

Staff can also communicate with fleet coordinators via the PC terminal without having to talk on the phone.

"Since deployment removalists no longer have to manually calculate what to charge a customer. They also use the PC terminal to clock on when they start a job then clock off. The system calculates all the totals and tells them how much to bill the customer," Arthur explained.

"When a customer has an enquiry or complaint, we can now act immediately. Fleet controllers no longer have to make multiple calls to drivers and then manually update the job system, all the information is entered by the drivers."

Since deploying 3, MiniMovers fleet controllers are effectively managing a 20 percent larger fleet.

"Fleet coordinators can now control 70 trucks per person, 20 percent more than before. Previously they were stretched managing 55 trucks; we can do more now with fewer people," Arthur said.

The Melbourne depot, which has no fixed phone lines, now has access to critical business applications such as e-mail. Staff have access via two PCs and a router connected to a 3 Mobile broadband card.

Arthur said the company's depots are often established on large blocks of undeveloped land to accommodate a fleet of trucks.

"Now that we know its cheaper to use mobile phones and broadband cards than it is to use ADSL and landlines we are going to replace our landline connections at all our other depots over the next two months," he said.

Australia's first 3G mobile network was launched by 3 in April 2003 and today the company has more than one million customers. Globally, the 3 Group has 11.9 million customers worldwide.

Found this article interesting but was curious about 3G transmission costs. Went searching the web.

Eureka! Earlier this year there was a 3G price war.

View the Austrilian IT article "3G Price freefall" posted April 3rd.

Maybe as prices go down, consumption goes up? Just maybe!

Until the next post,

Steve

One Laptop Per Child Group Expands its Audience

There has been speculation that OLAP may offer a two for one program. The speculation is over.

U.S. and Canadian residents can pay $400 for one laptop to keep and one to give to a child in a developing nation.

From: Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service
Monday, September 24, 2007 4:00 AM PDT

Some of the low-cost PCs designed by One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) for kids in the developing world will go to people in North America.

That's the result of a program the group plans to launch on Monday that will let U.S. and Canadian residents pay US$400 for one laptop to keep and one to give to a child in a developing nation.

Initially, at least, purchasers won't be able to choose where the second laptop will go.

"The idea is to help feed programs in the least developed countries and broaden the community of engagement," said Walter Bender, president of software and content for OLPC. By putting the laptops in the hands of people in North America, the group hopes to persuade more people to contribute content or other developments to the project, he said.

The offer will start on Nov. 12 and run through Nov. 26. "We don't want to divert too much away from the developing world, so we'll do a short window," Bender said.

Mass production of the laptops is scheduled for October, with the first units landing in the hands of kids around the world in early November, he said. The initial run will generate 40,000 units and production will quickly double and triple that capacity to meet demand, he said.

The original plan for the OLPC project was to create a laptop that would cost less than $100, but more recently the price has been pegged closer to $190. The $400 deal for two laptops includes some padding for the cost of sending one of the laptops to a remote location, Bender said.

Can we load "rdesktop" into the system and Skype too?

Until the next post:

Steve

NComputing's Breakthrough Virtual PC Technology Enables 180,000 Low-Cost Workstations on Classroom Desktops Nationwide

From Marketwire:

Sep 17, 2007 04:00 ET

Macedonia Becomes First Nation to Provide Computer Workstations for Every Student

NComputing's Breakthrough Virtual PC Technology Enables 180,000 Low-Cost Workstations on Classroom Desktops Nationwide

REDWOOD CITY, CA--(Marketwire - September 17, 2007) - NComputing, provider of the world's most affordable solutions for PC access, today announced that its multi-user virtual desktop software and low-cost virtual PC terminals will be used to equip every school child in the Republic of Macedonia with a rich individual computer experience. The most ambitious national undertaking ever to standardize all schools around a single technology platform, the "Computer for Every Child" project of the Macedonia Ministry of Education and Science will deploy 180,000 NComputing-enabled workstation seats, enough to provide virtually every elementary and secondary school student in the nation with his or her own classroom computing device.

NComputing's multi-user virtual desktop software and low-cost virtual PC terminals, along with supporting Linux-based PCs, were proven in Macedonia tests to deliver a rich PC experience at less than half the cost of any other proposed solution, including low-cost desktop and laptop PCs and other thin client options, according to Ivo Ivanovski, Macedonia's Minister for the Information Society. Huge additional advantages in reduced maintenance and replacement costs made the choice of NComputing even more compelling. With half the students attending school in the morning, and half attending in the afternoon, 180,000 workstations will provide a 1-to-1 computing experience -- one virtual PC at each student's desk -- for the country's entire public school student population.

"The Computer for Every Child initiative is the largest and most important education project undertaken in the 15-year history of the Republic of Macedonia," according to Ivanovsky. "Our goal is to build a knowledge-based economy in which our entire workforce is educated in using information and communication technology within the next five years. Yet, like most school systems around the world, Macedonia's education system has limited financial and infrastructural resources to address this challenge. By adopting NComputing's low-cost virtual PC technology, Macedonia is taking the lead in providing computer-based education for school children."

"We at NComputing believe that providing PC access to the next billion users -- those who cannot afford the cost of an individual PC -- is the single biggest challenge facing our industry today. Perhaps the most important segment of this under-served mass market is school children, including students in the United States and other developed countries, as well as those in developing nations," said Stephen Dukker, Chairman and CEO of NComputing. "We're gratified that NComputing's technology can be an important part of the solution in Macedonia and around the world."

NComputing's corporate mission is to provide affordable PC access to under-resourced markets around the world, including schools and users in developing and developed countries. The company's revolutionary technology allows a single PC to be shared by multiple simultaneous users -- each running their own applications. Setup is simple, and begins with software on the shared PC that creates multiple virtual user desktops. Standard monitors, keyboards and mice then plug into very low-cost, highly reliable virtual PCs (also known as access terminals). As a major leap forward in green computing, NComputing solutions draw between one and five watts of power for each added user, versus 115 for a typical PC. Neither IT staff nor end users require special training, and the system is compatible with Windows, Linux and standard PC applications. Pricing is as low as $70 per seat.

With NComputing's X300, up to seven users can simultaneously share a single PC. The cost and power savings are critical in school deployments, including in Macedonia, because budgets and electricity are often limited. Macedonia also chose NComputing's technology because maintenance and replacement costs are a fraction of what they are for traditional PC deployments. NComputing's solid-state virtual PC terminals have no moving parts and require little or no maintenance, so the principal maintenance costs follow only the shared PCs and monitors. In addition, in an upgrade cycle to newer PCs, only the PCs themselves, not the virtual PC terminals, need to be replaced.

Through a global network of resellers, NComputing also offers the L-series, which connects via Ethernet at any distance from a shared PC or server on either Local Area Networks or over the Internet. The number of L-series virtual PCs supported is limited only by the power of the shared PC. Hundreds can be supported on virtualized servers.

When completed, Macedonia's Computer for Every Child initiative will have deployed approximately 160,000 NComputing virtual PC terminals and 20,000 NComputing-enabled PCs (which each also support a student on the attached monitor) running the Ubuntu Linux-based operating system. The Haier Company, a diversified manufacturer and PC maker, and one of China's largest and most respected companies, won the contract for procurement and installation. The project will enable a range of innovative educational programs, including interactive web-based classes in which specialized experts teach lessons in such areas as mathematics, biology, chemistry and physics to multiple schools and classrooms around the country.

NComputing's multi-user system software and low-cost virtual PC terminals represent the next generation of thin computing, in which multi-user computing finally becomes affordable and accessible, and the user-experience equals that of a dedicated PC. The Macedonia project is at the same time, the largest known thin client and desktop Linux deployment ever undertaken.

"This project would not have been possible 5 years ago," said Ivanovski. "Today's least expensive desktop PCs are so powerful we use less than 10% of their capacity and NComputing's technology puts this wasted power to work."

In a brief 18 months after starting active shipments, NComputing has sold more than 500,000 seats, including more than 200,000 to U.S. schools, providing technology that addresses the needs of under-served markets worldwide, as well as those of small business and enterprise customers. The company's technology is being sold and deployed in more than 80 countries -- including thousands of schools, corporate and small business offices, and villages and cities in Africa, Europe, Asia and South America.

Until the next post,

Steve

26.25 gigaflops Server for less than 2,500 USD and fits into a suit case

From:Calvin College
3201 Burton Street, SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49546

Written by Allison Graff, web communications coordinator

Student, prof build budget supercomputer
August 30 , 2007

When Tim Brom, Class 07, (pictured right) set out to build a budget supercomputer with Calvin computer science professor Joel Adams, he didn’t know the product of his efforts might end up in his checked baggage headed for England.

Brom, now a graduate student at the University of Kentucky continuing his studies in computer science, worked with Adams to build Microwulf, a machine that is among the smallest and least expensive supercomputers on the planet.

“It’s small enough to check on an airplane or fit next to a desk,” said Brom.

This may prove useful next summer when Brom and others from his graduate program travel to England to do work that will require “a significant amount of computing power.” And as the price of commercial supercomputers is often prohibitive for many educational institutions, bringing a “personal” supercomputer like Microwulf could be a cost-effective solution for the group of graduate researchers.

“So far as we can tell, this is the first supercomputer to have this low price/performance ratio—the first to cost less than $100/Gflop,” said Adams.

This is a significant achievement considering that Microwulf is more than twice as fast as Deep Blue, the IBM-created supercomputer that beat world chess champion Gary Kasparov in 1997, and cost only a fraction of the $5 million spent to build Deep Blue.

Microwulf has been measured to process 26.25 gigaflops, or 26.25 billion double-precision floating point instructions, per second. It achieves this performance by relying on four dual-core motherboards connected by an 8-port Gigabyt Ethernet switch. The connected components form a three-tiered system that looks like a triple-decker sandwich.


Supercomputers like Microwulf are used to solve problems that take too much number-crunching for an ordinary desktop to handle, either because its processor is too slow, or because it doesn’t have enough memory, said Adams. Truly huge supercomputers (more than 100 times as fast as Microwulf) are used by organizations like the National Weather Service to process meteorological data and by the United States Missile Defense Agency to simulate nuclear tests.

Microwulf is considered a Beowulf cluster, a group of networked computers that run open source software and work in parallel to solve a single problem. Beowulf clusters are so named because their homemade, cost-effective nature liberates researchers from expensive commercial options for super-computing, much like Beowulf of the Old English poem liberated the Danes from the tyrannical rule of Grendel.

Do Brom and Adams see themselves as “liberators” by unveiling of a system like Microwulf?

“We’re taking the liberation a step further,” said Adams. “Instead of a bunch of researchers having to share a single Beowulf cluster supercomputer, now each researcher can have their own.”

Just two years ago, building a personal supercomputer like Microwulf for the price of a high-performance desktop was out of the realm of possibility for Adams and Brom. But when they saw a portable Beowulf cluster called Little Fe at a conference in October 2005, they began to think about building their system.

“I was really enjoying my high-performance computing class and wanted to keep working in that area after the class ended. I was also thinking about graduate school at the time and a project like Microwulf looks good on a curriculum vitae,” said Brom.

So by the summer of 2006 when the price of hardware materials needed to build Microwulf had gone down, Adams asked his academic department to provide $2500 for the project. He also asked Brom, then beginning his last year at Calvin, to help him build the supercomputer. In January of 2007, they began to piece together their system and by March, they were running tests to see just what Microwulf could do. In the end, the project came in under budget with Microwulf donning a price-tag of just $2470. With current hardware prices, another system like Microwulf would cost half of what it cost Adams and Brom to build earlier this year.

Though supercomputers are typically evaluated on their price/performance ratio, Adams built Microwulf giving attention to its power/performance ratio as well. In other words, he wanted to pay attention to the system’s energy consumption.

“This is becoming increasingly important, as excess power consumption is inefficient and generates waste heat, which can in turn decrease reliability,” said Adams on his Web site.

Adams and Brom managed to build Microwulf so that it could plug into one standard 120V wall outlet. This feature only enhances the system’s portability, allowing it to be taken to classrooms and other research labs where large power supplies are unavailable.

Adams isn’t going to let Microwulf gather dust in the supercomputing lab in the Science Building. Instead he’s going to take it out on the road, mostly to middle school and high school classrooms to try and get teenagers hooked on computer science.

Microwulf’s inventors aren’t set on keeping their blueprints for the supercomputer a secret. In fact, they’ve just published a detailed description and evaluation of their project on Cluster Monkey so others can build their own portable and affordable supercomputers.

It remains to be seen whether Brom will be able to get his wire-filled personal supercomputer past airport security next summer.

Until the next post,

Steve

Why "Good Enough" Is Good Enough

From BusinessWeek September 3, 2007

NEWS & INSIGHTS/Commentary
By Stephen Baker

Why "Good Enough" Is Good Enough
Imperfect technology greases innovation--and the whole marketplace

Say you have a crucial conference call in an hour and your phone goes dead. What do you do? A generation ago, this wasn't much of an issue, at least in the U.S. Phones in the days of the Bell monopoly were engineered to be "mission critical." You picked up one of those heavy receivers back then, and the dial tone was as prompt and reliable as water from the tap. It worked.

Yet these days, even as we pack global multimedia in our pockets, phone service sometimes seems to march backward. Andy Beal was one of 220 million subscribers to Skype, the cut-rate Internet telephony service owned by eBay (EBAY ), who saw the service go dark on Aug. 16. A software glitch kept it down for the next two days. Founder of the Raleigh (N.C.) Internet marketing consultancy Marketing Pilgrim, Beal learned that Skype was out an hour before clients were to call him from Holland. He had to message them in a hurry, telling them to call his tenuous backup: the cell phone. "It was embarrassing," he says. But at least the cell phone worked--which isn't always the case.

Are communications getting worse? Not by a long shot. We're surrounded by miraculous machines and services, most of them calibrated to a level software engineers have long called "good enough." In the right circumstances, good enough is great for the entire economy. A marketplace that's not hung up on fail-safe standards is open to risk and innovation, and drives down prices. Ever since the dawn of the PC--the archetype for a good-enough machine--inventors have been freer than ever to piece together and launch their visions. Some are brilliant, some are half-baked, many are a blend of the two. A precious few are up and running 99.999% of the time--Bell's old standard. But they cost far less to build.

The rise of good-enough technology raises different questions for do-it-yourselfers and major corporations alike. It's no longer whether we can afford a technology, but more often whether we can afford the disruption if and when it fails. Is it critical? Do we have backup in place? Many of us face this question every time we venture from our office with a cell phone. We don't have "one machine that works all the time," says Dave Morgan, chairman of Tacoda Inc., a New York advertising company. "We have lots of alternatives that work most of the time."

The upside of this sloppy status quo is enormous. Consider Andy Beal. He pays Skype about $60 a year, plus a couple cents for foreign calls. This gives him global telephony wherever he wanders with his laptop. He calls the service "seamless." He recently switched most of his office work--including e-mail, contacts, and calendar--to free Web services. This, of course, entails risk. In late July, an electrical outage in San Francisco brought some of the biggest sites, from Craigslist to Second Life, crashing down for 12 hours.

Beal's data reside on Google (GOOG ). The search giant is in fact an example of a major corporation that, like so many small fry, bets its business on good-enough technology. Google's data centers, the heart of the company's operations, consist of hundreds of thousands of commodity computers wired into a vast global network. These computers are little more reliable than yours or mine. Many die and are replaced every week. It could be that one of them at this very minute is issuing its dying blinks--and taking down Andy Beal's contact data with it. But if Google is working as designed, it links customers to another copy of those files or Web pages stored elsewhere on the network. Every computer has a legion of backups. Success, in the good-enough economy, means racing ahead even as the machines supporting us sputter and break.

I am fortunate to have the the name Steve. So when i remind myself to K.I.S.S, it means Keep It Simple Steve. But how simple can you make something and still achieve the required objectives? After a little thought, boiled the question down to the word "Precision". How "Precise" does something have to be?

Sometime later, was sitting in a tavern, famous for its Red Door, talking with a fellow IT guy about computer stuff. We each read several weekly "rags" and would exchange thoughts on what had "Legs" and what was "Flash". Asked him for his thoughts on how precise all this tech needs to be to work.

He answers, "Aristotle."

He informs me that i am couple thousand years behind and that one of the original founders of the first "SAP" had been down this road. He is brief but explains, sometimes "less is more." Maybe the time is right for a cell phone that only makes calls. I have one. It resides in the console of me truck, turned off.

Or here is a digital solution that does everything I want (or need) and nothing else to clutter its beauty. I use about 2% of what is in any of the operating systems and applications on the machines in the lab. Ninety plus some percent of available resources is not needed, nor wanted, but you get it regardless. Sometimes people may be asking for the wrong thing when they exclaim, "Why can it not just work?', when they should ask, "Why can i not get just what i need?" Sometimes more is less.

Until the next post,

Steve

Really Big Clusters Made From Lots of Small Servers

Is the real interest in "Greener" data centers to lower energy costs (good for the environment and bottom line) or is it that more efficient ways of computing require less energy? Maybe some of both?

From InfoQ:

Greener datacenters through Millicomputer clusters?

Posted by Johan Strandler on Aug 28, 2007 10:07 AM

One big problem with current large scale enterprise computing and data centers is power consumption, and a lot of effort is made in the industry to reduce the power need in current server platforms. Adrian Cockcroft is defining a new type of enterprise computing platform where he addresses this problem by defining a new type of computer: The Millicomputer - a computer that requires less than 1 Watt. The idea is to build enterprise servers out of commodity components from the battery powered mobile space. He presents a way to build an enterprise server using about 100 such Millicomputers in a cluster on a single 1U rack. This server only consumes less than 160W which is much less than comparable 1U rack enterprise servers of today. Cockcroft calls this disruptive innovation and he makes a prediction for 2010 that there could be a market for about 100,000 Milliclusters at $10K each, where each Millicluster packages 100 Millicomputers into an Enterprise Server.

The Millicomputer and MilliCluster hardware is developed as "Open Hardware", which means that the hardware design won't be owned by a single vendor. The Millicomputer is using LInux as the operating system and the hardware is based on a Freescale i.MX31 System-on-a-chip component using microSDHC flash memory. While the Millicomputer doesn't require much power by itself, external ethernet connections do. In order to save power, Cockcroft introduces the concept of "Enterprise MilliCluster", which allows 14 Millicomputers to be load balanced behind one Twin 1GB Ethernet external interface ethernet port by connecting by connecting them through a USB switch using Linux USBNet transport. The form factor to such a MilliCluster makes it possible to put 8 clusters plus a power unit on a single 1U rack, which consumes less than 160W - probably much less.

By comparing a MilliCluster based 1U server with Suns x4100 Operon and T1000 Niagara servers Cockcroft says:

"For the same 1U package size and similar cost per package power is much less than a Niagara, less than half of an Opteron system. Total RAM capacity is similar, the raw CPU GHz is double, worst case GHz per Watt is six times better than Opteron, three times better than Niagara. Flash storage is 1000x faster for both random and sequential IOPS.

Applications suitable to run on Millicomputers include:

Applications that can be broken into small chunks, small scale or horizontally scalable web workloads, legacy applications that used to run on 5 year old machines, graphical video caves and storage I/O intensive applications are the best candidates to run on Millicomputers."

Although in very early development, Millicomputing appears to be quite a paradigm shift; could this be the enterprise hardware platform of the (greener) future?

Until the next post,

Steve

FCC Sets Spectrum Auction

From PC World:

The long-awaited auction of 700MHz 'beachfront property' is scheduled to begin in January.

Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service

Saturday, August 18, 2007 3:00 PM PDT

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will begin its long-awaited auction of 700MHz radio spectrum on Jan. 16, 2008, the agency said Friday.

The sale is expected to take in US$10 billion or more in bids for what has been called "beachfront property:" licenses for frequencies that can carry mobile data and voice services over long distances and through walls much better than current cellular spectrum. The frequencies are currently used by analog television stations, which are scheduled to turn their channels over in 2009 as they move to digital broadcasting.

Google Inc. and others asked for rules in the auction that would help new entrants get into the national wireless business, such as a requirement that the winner sell some of the spectrum wholesale to other service providers. The FCC finally watered-down rules for openness, including that one part of the band can be used by any device or application.

The agency is seeking public comments on the auction, designated Auction 73. They are due by Aug. 31.

Choice is good.

Until the next post.

Steve

Eric Schmidt talking about Web 2.0 vs 3.0

From Youtube dot com.

When Eric speaks a lot of people listen.




Until the next post,

Steve

Stephen Dukker, CEO NComputing, comments on OLPC

NComputing has for more than a year been one of the top three searches that bring users to this site. I personally operate their units at two sites with out a problem.

From: Stephen Dukker, NComputing CNET News.com

Published: 07 Aug 2007 17:59 BST

via news.zdnet.co.uk

The last few years have witnessed an increasing focus on creating inexpensive, affordable computers for users in the developing world.

At the forefront of this movement is Professor Nicholas Negroponte, founder and former director of the MIT Media Lab. His not-for-profit One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project has been developing a laptop (targeted at $100 (£50) but currently struggling to break $200) suitable for use by every child in the developing world. Recently, Intel joined the board of OLPC and will even contribute funding to the project.

Helping people in the developing world cross the digital divide is a fundamental act of decency and generosity — and even self-interest — as these new markets grow, consumers spend and productivity surges. The need for technology among the under-served is so urgent, hopeful thinking goes, that even a computer with no commercial viability — no distribution channels, maintenance, training, programming services and, in fact, virtually no IT ecosystem at all — can meet that market's need.

As laudable as this dream is, the ideal unfortunately runs counter to a fundamental fact of life: a computer cannot exist independent of basic economic realities.

A computer is, rather, a creature of connectivity and collaboration. And, given the economic realities in the developing world, $200 computers cannot generate the profit essential for the creation of a robust IT ecosystem, which is essential to ensure successful deployment, ongoing operation and maintenance.

The price of a base-level personal computer today is about $400. That hasn't changed much in the last 10 years, although the power this computer delivers has increased profoundly. As a result, however, the world computer user base has been stuck at a largely saturated 850 million users for years. Unfortunately another billion potential users — most in developing and under-served markets like education — cannot afford the requisite $400. If we can merely squeeze down the price tag, have we solved their problem?

Only if you believe that OLPC and Intel's $200 laptop, with their PDA-like, seven-inch screens and obsolete processors are the answer. But the developing world is not just "village kids", but rather motivated, ambitious people engaged in business, agriculture, commerce, healthcare, finance and education.

As laudable as this dream is, the ideal unfortunately runs counter to a fundamental fact of life: a computer cannot exist independent of basic economic realities

Stephen Dukker, NComputing

For PCs to be productive in this business and educational landscape, they require a host of supporting services, plus reasonable features and capabilities. A PC must communicate, which mandates connectivity. That, in turn, demands configuration, maintenance, professional services, technical support, hardware and software upgradeability. Without a healthy ecosystem, a PC is not worth even $200.

Here in the developed world, the PC hardware makers have put up with profitless computing for years as a result of operating in a saturated, upgrade-driven market. We know our industry is in sick condition and we have now driven down the cost of "real PCs" as far as they can go.

However, not everyone needs their own PC. What they do need is access to the functionality and benefits that the PC provides, delivered in an affordable and efficient way. That's where I believe multi-user computing fills the void.

This multi-user model is not new. During the 1960s, when computers were all mainframes and cost millions, multi-user computing, in the form of time-sharing (where we rented access by the hour using low-cost "dumb terminals"), was our first tool for expanding the market from the "Fortunate 500" to the rest of us. This model continued through the 1970s, with $100,000 and, ultimately, $10,000 minicomputers further expanding the market. In the 1980s came the PC and the world changed; ultimately, we all got our own computers.

Although the last 10 years have seen very little movement in the price of low-end PCs, technology advances have turned the 2007 entry-level PC into a very muscular piece of technology whose gigapower is more than 1,000 times that of a $400 box built in 1998. Only a fraction of today's PC users, such as computational scientists, extreme gamers, graphic artists and industrial designers use more than a few percent of what these mainframes on a desk can offer.

As a result, the vast majority of those CPU cycles are wasted, burning energy (150 to 200 watts per box) which is costly and scarce in these markets and becoming ever more costly to own. So why not harness and share this extra capacity and resurrect these proven techniques and technologies from the past to take today's "mainframe on a desk" and put its power to work?

Enterprise computer users have been benefiting from the PC version of multi-user computing since 1990, something our industry has dubbed "server-based computing". Blade computing and virtualisation are the latest twists on this same multi-user concept.

However, these enterprise software and hardware components are expensive. The software licences alone often add up to more than the cost of the full or stripped-down PCs being used as the access terminals. These terminals (thin clients) are themselves as expensive as low-end PCs. It has been, thus far, a technology for the rich and fortunate.

A number of new firms, including my own company, NComputing, have reincarnated the thin client with non-CPU-based access terminals. Access terminals are being built today at costs as low as $11 and sold for well under $100 per user. At the same time, they provide manufacturers, distributors, resellers and maintenance partners with full commercial margins. The expensive software and high-end servers have been replaced by low-cost or free software and desktop PCs. These multi-user environments tap the power of low-end PCs to support 10 or more concurrent users, with power consumption of under six watts per user.

All the evidence undercuts the widespread technology assumption about how best to liberate emerging regions of the globe from the energy-wasteful business model which is being foisted upon them today.

Stephen Dukker is chief executive of NComputing. He is also a founder and former chief executive of eMachines.

If your are really interested, perform a search on "NComputing Ndiyo Teradici". Leave me a comment and i will forward you the name of a computer manufacture that is also interested.

Until the next post,

Steve

Clearwire and Sprint partner to build out WiMax in US

Cleaning out the email box and came upon this article. T1 speed with wireless. Covers about 300 million users in the US. I like it.

From: Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service

Sunday, July 22, 2007 4:00 PM PDT

With wider national coverage than either company could have had on its own, Sprint Nextel Corp. and Clearwire Corp. say they can achieve on their joint WiMax network some of what Google Inc. and others want to see in the prized 700MHz band.

The companies announced Thursday they will link their respective WiMax wireless broadband networks to give subscribers a seamless roaming experience across territories that eventually will cover 300 million U.S. residents. The network will deliver between 2M bps (bits per second) and 4M bps downstream and about half that speed upstream, they said.

Sprint and Clearwire plan to use WiMax so that subscribers can choose among a wide range of devices built to the open standard on which the technology is based. In addition, they intend to let users access any application or service on the Internet, said Atish Gude, senior vice president of mobile broadband operations at Sprint.

The upcoming auction of 700MHz radio spectrum around the U.S. has sparked a fierce debate between traditional carriers and Google Inc., Frontline Wireless LLC and others over how that spectrum should be used. Current mobile operators generally sell a limited set of devices locked to their networks and favor their own applications among the offerings their customers can access on their phones. Google told the FCC on Friday it won't bid unless the government requires any-device, any-application networks. It also wants a rule forcing the winners to sell wholesale network access to other service providers. Sprint doesn't have plans for wholesale access.

Sprint, which announced its WiMax plans last year, said Thursday it owns spectrum licenses for the WiMax band that cover 185 million U.S. residents. Clearwire has spectrum in the same band to serve 115 million people. The combined network should be fairly comprehensive, covering urban, suburban and rural areas across the country, which today has a population just over 302 million, the Census Bureau estimates.

After "soft" launches in Chicago and Washington, D.C., at the end of this year and commercial availability starting next year, the companies together aim to reach 100 million people by the end of 2008. This is the same 2008 goal Sprint had given previously by itself, but it was an aggressive goal then and is now a conservative estimate, Gude said. The companies did not estimate when the full network would be completed.

Given the higher frequency Sprint and Clearwire plan to use, at 2.5GHz, their network is likely to need more base stations than a similar network using 700MHz, which travels over long distances and through walls more easily.

Video about Xohm

Clearwire already operates a wireless broadband service and has been planning to convert it to standard mobile WiMax, which is only now emerging as a commercial technology. The company is backed by heavy hitters including Intel Corp. and Motorola Inc.

Sprint, struggling against larger rivals AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless Inc., could use Clearwire's helping hand. The deal may let Sprint realize its WiMax dream at less expense, said IDC analyst Godfrey Chua. There seems to be little overlap between the two carriers' licenses, so the partnership won't really hurt competition and is likely to win government approval, Chua said.

The first users will access the network with standalone modems, notebook add-on cards or PCs and smaller Ultra Mobile PCs with embedded modems, Sprint said. But it sees mobility as the key driver of the network and believes WiMax handsets will arrive by 2009, Gude said.

However, Chua thinks ever-faster cellular technologies have the edge for mobility. The Sprint-Clearwire network will compete mainly against DSL (digital subscriber line) and cable modem services, with the advantage that subscribers can set up a notebook away from home and enjoy the same service. It could significantly boost broadband competition, he said.

"It's making the world a little bit more interesting now," Chua said.

Until the next post,

Steve

Received in my in box this article from RED HERRING.

PC Killer?

Desktone snares $17M, vies to convert big companies to virtual desktops.
July 30, 2007

By Ken Schachter

Desktone, which aims to get companies to junk their PCs in favor of thin clients with virtualized desktops, has landed $17 million in a series A funding round announced Monday.

Highland Capital Partners and Softbank Capital led the round, which also included China-based Tangee International and strategic investor Citrix Systems.

Desktone, whose software is designed to tie together client devices, operating systems, storage, applications, servers and network technology, is likely to face stiff competition. Some corporate IT departments prefer to build the virtualized desktop on their own. Startups like 2-year-old Kidaro, a New York City-based company backed by Genesis Partners, Storm Ventures and Opus Capital Ventures, also compete for a share of the market.

Microsoft, whose Windows operating system dominates the corporate workplace, in 2006 acquired Softricity, whose chief executive was Harry Ruda, now the chief executive of Desktone.

Peter Bell, a partner at Highland Capital and a Desktone board member, said Desktone, based in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, offers the IT managers of large corporations a respite from the complexities of managing thousands of networked PCs.

“Their software platform is removing some of the physical complexity where you might have thousands of desktops,” he said. Desktone will provide the IT organization a single management console.

Ron Fisher, also a board member at Desktone and managing partner at Softbank, the cost of maintaining a personal computer in a corporate environment can be several times the cost of acquisition.

“When you move people’s PCs, the cost of getting them set up is several hundred dollars,” he said.

Rather than charge companies one large fee for its software, Desktone is selling “software as a service,” charging companies a per-user fee per month or per year.

That model appeals to companies seeking to improve their return on assets, said Desktone Chief Operating Officer Paul Gaffney, who has served in senior positions at superstore chains Staples and Office Depot.

One-year-old Desktone already has some undisclosed corporate customers and intends to focus initially on financial services firms in the Boston-New York City corridor, Mr. Bell said.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Citrix Systems’ infrastructure is used in some virtualized desktops to deliver software applications.

Though some companies will want desktop users to have “thin clients,” allowing the IT department to serve and store all information, others will be content to coordinate software patches and updates through a “virtual desktop” on PCs, Mr. Fisher said.

Until the next post,

Steve