Network World has an interesting article on Software Streaming that caught my interest. It sounds like they are describing a product similar to Apple’s NetBoot, which I’ve Seen in action at CCC. The article however is very sparse on details – a lot of theory, but no actual how-to’s or off the shelf software to accomplish it.
I’ve seen similar concepts, like the formentioned Apple NetBoot, and LTSP for Linux clients, but haven’t seen this done since the windows 98 days for a Microsoft product. Searching revealed two major suppliers of this technology: Bootix (250 euros/license) and Qualsystem (99 euros/license).
An interesting concept, and it would be interesting to see how it compares to a Windows Terminal Server or a Citrix solution – both in price and performance.
Actually, this technology is different from Terminal/Server.
In Terminal/Server, processes run on the server, which requires heavy duty capable computers.
In “software streaming” technology, processes run on the clients, which doesn’t need a strong server as a result. The load in redirected from teh server CPU to the ethernet network.
Such a technology already exists from a long time in the Linux world, as linux kernel can mount Network File System as its root file system. it’s called nfsroot.
cheers,
CH COOLIN