A DISCUSSION OF THIN CLIENT TECHNOLOGY FOR

COMPUTER LABS
Jesus Martnez-Mateo, Susana Munoz-Hernandez and David Perez-Rey
Facultad de Informatica, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo, Madrid, Spain

Keywords:

Thin client, e-Learning, Computer lab.

Abstract:

Computer literacy is not negotiable for any professional in an increasingly computerised environment. Educational institutions should be equipped to provide this new basic training for modern life. Accordingly,
computer labs are an essential medium for education in almost any field. Computer labs are one of the most
popular IT infrastructures for technical training in primary and secondary schools, universities and other educational institutions all over the world. Unfortunately, a computer lab is expensive, in terms of both initial
purchase and annual maintenance costs, and especially when we want to run the latest software. Hence,
research efforts addressing computer lab efficiency, performance or cost reduction would have a worldwide
repercussion. In response to this concern, this paper presents a survey on thin client technology for computer
labs in educational environments. Besides setting out the advantages and drawbacks of this technology, we
aim to refute false prejudices against thin clients, identifying a set of educational scenarios where thin clients
are a better choice and others requiring traditional solutions.

INTRODUCTION

Traditional education has been hampered by the difficulties inherent in information and communication
technologies (ICT). Nowadays, modern education
faces a new challenge: the use of technology in the
classroom. Concerning these new educational challenges, probably one of the most popular is related to
improving computer lab performance. Note that considering the number of institutions that have to deal
with these infrastructures, any advantageous proposal
will have a worldwide repercussion.
There are a set of well-known problems that educational institutions must address when using computer labs. The main obstacles are usually related to
economic issues. Some institutions do not even have
computer labs due to unaffordable costs. The equipment and the installation of a new computer lab is
very expensive. Moreover, both software and hardware maintenance is a sustained cost over time. Software and hardware evolve daily at a speed that most
institutions are unable to keep pace with. Thus software and hardware upgrades especially are an expense that many institutions are unwilling to pay.
Thin client technology can be used to overcome
some of these problems. For instance, this technology
is an especially interesting option when upgrading an

educational computer lab, but it is not widespread

in these scenarios probably due to historical prejudices. An excessive triumphalism by supporters of
thin client technology, claiming the many advantages
of this technology sometimes rightly or wrongly but
usually without proper justification, may have led to
the early dismissal of thin client technology by many
professionals. It has often been relegated to an immature technology status. However, today there are solutions based on thin client technology that are simple
to use, and after many years of development and evolution are highly reliable, which could be a very interesting option in some specific scenarios. Some of
these solutions are the Linux Terminal Server Project
(LTSP) project1, especially designed for Unix-based
systems, or Lan Core2 , a project originally focused
on the use of thin clients on Windows systems.
In this paper we summarise the main characteristics of thin clients (Section 2), explicitly stating their
strengths and weakness related to the educational environment (Section 3). From this information we have
identified a set of scenarios (Section 4) where the use
thin client technology is a good option, and some
counter examples.
1 http://www.ltsp.org
2 http://lancore.sourceforge.net

Martnez-Mateo J., Munoz-Hernandez S. and Prez-Rey D. (2010).

A DISCUSSION OF THIN CLIENT TECHNOLOGY FOR COMPUTER LABS.
In Proceedings of the Multi-Conference on Innovative Developments in ICT, pages 119-124
DOI: 10.5220/0002962901190124
c SciTePress
Copyright

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and they were no longer connected to a central computer directly, but via a network. New graphical operating systems, including the new Unix-based systems (e.g. Linux), introduced the new desktop concept. The client side in a thin client solution had to be
modified to be adapted to graphical devices (see Figure 1), new user interfaces, the mouse and other new
input and output devices.
Because of everything discussed above, today it is
not possible to find a primary reference introducing
the new concept of thin client, terminal, or diskless
devices in computing. However, there can be no doubt
that thin client technology has been always present in
computing, sometimes going by a different name or
terminology, running on primitive or highly evolved
hardware, even supported by entirely different operating systems, using batch processing, multitasking,
and other hardware and software sharing strategies.
Figure 1: In a thin client network, all clients are continuously connected to a common server in a centralised architecture. For each connection the server sends the desktop to
the client computer (the thin client). The user works using
a remote desktop session.

THIN CLIENT TECHNOLOGY

From the very beginning of computing, around the

1950s, early computers had to be shared by multiple users on economic grounds. Mainframes, mainly
known for their large size and priced according by,
evolved towards the interaction of a single computer
with multiple users. A few years later the first terminal appeared: This was an specific device connected
to the mainframe enabling multiple users to access
and share computing resources through batch processing. The early terminals, today known as consoles,
worked in text mode only, and were connected via
serial lines. Therefore, a primitive type of generalpurpose device working much like a thin client was
there way back when the main commercial computers
first came on the scene.
Console terminals evolved gradually and continuously for years until the advent of the personal computer (PC) in the 1980s. Physical terminals were then
immediately replaced by PCs equipped with terminal
emulation software. Not only were PCs a substitute
for the old terminal devices, but they also marked a
profound change in the computing architecture. For
the first time, the client (i.e. the PC) had its own processing capacity, leading to the client and server division. It was also a turning point for terminal computing, where terminals became known as thin clients

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2.1 Thin Client Benefits

Thin client technology can make a network administrators job easier for three main reasons: it is
easy to manage, easy to secure and easy on the budget (Romm, 2006). An explanation of each one of
these benefits follows:
1. A thin client network is easy to manage and maintain thanks to its centralised set-up and support. It
simplifies troubleshooting, network management,
and monitoring among other things.
2. Security is provided intrinsically by the architecture of a thin client solution. Input devices such
as local Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports are easily disabled, thus avoiding a common source of
viruses. The integration of firewall functionality in every computer in the network (i.e. a distributed firewall) is possible by just configuring a
firewall on the server (Ioannidis et al., 2000).
3. The use of thin client technology is low cost in
terms of hardware (see Figure 2), software (just
one licence for the server), set-up and maintenance (see Figure 3).
Points one and two are related to the fact that there
is only one processor and point three is related to the
simplicity of the thin client technology. In the context
of this paper there is one property of thin client technology that should be emphasised: a thin client has no
need of high processing capacity. Note that it will not
run anything apart from the hardware and software
needed to properly visualise the graphical user interface. Accordingly low-performance hardware (i.e.
out-of-date computers or ancient hardware) could

A DISCUSSION OF THIN CLIENT TECHNOLOGY FOR COMPUTER LABS

800

PC

PC
4

700

Thin Client

Thin Client
3

600

2
500

1
400

0
0

10

15

20

Figure 2: Evolution of the price (vertical axis in euros) per

unit (PC or thin client) according to the number of installed
workstations (horizontal axis). This estimate has been calculated assuming the following costs: PC 600 EUR, thin
client 400 EUR, and server 1000 EUR; with an incremental discount (n 0.5%) depending on the number of units
purchased.

be used to build a thin client. Considering these benefits, thin clients are an attractive technology for institutions with old computers, budget concern and limited maintenance staff (i.e. more than 80% of the educational institutions in the world, most of them in
developing countries).

2.2 Green Computing

Reducing energy consumption is an attractive goal not
only due to increasing energy costs, but also from
the standpoint of natural resources and environmental
conservation. There are many reasons for implementing green IT systems, and hardware that is specifically
designed for thin clients seems to fit in perfectly here
(UMSICHT, 2008).
In a comparison with other alternatives that have
similar possibilities to thin clients on other counts,
thin client technology has an important point in favour
of its aptness for green computing.

25

STRENGTHS AND
WEAKNESSES

Probably the main feature of a thin client is that users

do not appreciate any difference from a desktop PC
when they first come into contact with the device. The
desktop displayed by a thin client is exactly the same
as one shown by a PC. This property of thin client
technology is essential in educational labs and it is
one of the strengths of this technology. Using thin
clients students can acquire the same skills that they
could learn using PCs because they actually use the

10

Figure 3: Estimated hours of maintenance per week (vertical axis) depending on the number of workstations (horizontal axis), comparing PCs versus thin clients.

same tools and applications (running on the server instead of on their own machines).
Another important strength of thin clients is that
most of the applications used on a PC, such as those
included in an office suite (e.g. Microsoft Office
in Windows operating systems or Open Office for
Linux) will probably run on a network with thin
clients. Similarly, Wikipedia (probably the most visited website on the Internet in academic environments) also has these advantages.
On the other hand, the thin client technologys
main weakness materialises in what are technically
referred to as high-motion scenarios (Deboosere et al.,
2007). High-motion scenarios include:
Streaming multimedia: video and audio are almost prohibitive using thin clients.
Motion graphics: animations, slide effects, etc.,
are processes that are often affected by a desktop
virtualisation.
Applications requiring a powerful graphics card:
everything related to games and 3D rendering.
Latency-sensitive applications, where the time it
takes an event to reach the client through a network is critical.
Hence, thin client technology is not an alternative
for scenarios with these requirements, but it could be
an optimal solution in the near future due to several
technical developments attempting to overcome the
above weaknesses (Simoens et al., 2008).

COMMON ACADEMIC
SCENARIOS

Each computer-based environment has particular requirements that need to be considered to find the optimal hardware and software solution. Looking at thin

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clients, some advantages and limitations of this technology will act as detriment or incentive for a thin
client solution. Below we analyse the main academic
scenarios regarding thin client suitability.
Note that we have highlighted overlaps among different scenarios.

4.1 Computer Labs

As discussed above (Figures 2 and 3) thin clients have
an edge in terms of budget and maintenance concerns
over PCs in installations from five and eight computers respectively. This covers almost all computer
labs in education. Thus a computer lab intended for
traditional computer-based learning may also benefit
from thin clients if they support the required tools. A
previous study suggests that most tools used in the
academic environment can be used with thin clients
(Brinkley, 2006). The results of this research are conclusive: of the 45 tools used in this case, only three
could not be used, and there were some minor problems with another three. The rest of tools run correctly using thin client technology.
Technology facilitates student participation and
computer labs are beginning to be used with this aim
(Peiper et al., 2004). Although there are interactivity increments in collaborative environments they are
supported by thin client technology.

universities worldwide and not suitable for thin

clients (Casella et al., 2007).
Remote students and professors. Pure e-learning
scenario also not suitable for thin clients.
Although the last two situations rule out a thin
client solution given that the academic organization
is not providing computers to access the resources,
thin client implementations have been proven to be a
feasible solution for use in most local student situations.

4.3 Web-based Learning

Web-based solutions are in widespread use for elearning. These solutions could be part of distance
learning or e-learning generally, but we have preferred to examine them separately due to their wide
dissemination.
Special-purpose hardware for thin clients or common PCs operate here as thin clients for remote learning, since its limitations do not affect most web applications. Some educational solutions that use webbased services have already proposed the use of thin
client technology in the classroom (Andria et al.,
2007). Even web-based scenarios including complex
requirements are good scenarios for the use of thin
clients (Callaghan et al., 2007), provide they do not
use multimedia or high-motion services.

4.2 Distance Learning

4.4 Digital Ink
Distance learning is a relatively modern academic situation in computer-based learning, where ICTs are
used to circumvent the boundaries of a physical classroom. This is a wider scenario than the one considered in a computer lab. A range of situations depending on student and professor location are listed below:
Local students and professors.
Traditional
computer-enhanced learning to meet todays ICT
literacy need. This situation is spreading fast and
is being combined with novel trends, such as digital ink (Section 4.4), which are suitable to work
on thin clients.
Local students with a remote professor. Students
gathered in a computer lab (see Section 4.1) attend
a lecture by a remote professor. Not a common
situation at traditional universities, it is an optimal
solution in most cooperation for development scenarios. It is also suitable for thin client implementations due to the number of computers required
and the limited budget and staff available.
Remote students with a local professor. Students
using off-campus computers to access teaching resources. This is the new model being adopted by

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New technologies are making a claim for a place in

education in the classroom. Most of these technologies are publicised as new e-learning strategies, but
some, such as digital ink, should be studied separately. It is not possible to decide whether a scenario is suitable for the use of thin client technology,
based only on the above strengths and weaknesses. In
this case, digital ink should be singled out from other
e-learning strategies because it proposes the use of
special-purpose hardware devices instead of common
computers used in conventional e-learning. For example, a proposal for the use of the Classroom Presenter3 application (a software platform for digital ink)
recommends the use of tablet PCs by students. Table
PCs are really modern devices for which a thin client
is no suitable (Anderson et al., 2007).

4.5 Education in Developing Countries

Health and education are fundamental aspects for a
countrys development. Education, especially in tech3 http://classroompresenter.cs.washington.edu

A DISCUSSION OF THIN CLIENT TECHNOLOGY FOR COMPUTER LABS

nical fields, is an important goal if developing countries are to emulate the information access opportunities of developed nations (Krikke, 2004). However, an
educational institution in a developing country cannot afford the cost of setting up and maintaining a
computer lab. Cooperation for development guidelines call for the use of sustainable technologies and
solutions, meaning the purely financial contribution
of purchasing a computer lab is not acceptable. Thin
client technology could further the use of computer
labs in developing countries in a sustainable way. In
this regard the following is an example of a success
story in terms of the technology proposed in this paper.
In 2006 the Technology for Development and Cooperation (TEDECO) Group4 led by professors of the
School of Computing at Universidad Politecnica de
Madrid, Spain, launched a new distance education
project at University of Ngozi (UNG), in Burundi.
A committee formed by members of the TEDECO
group and expert engineers explored several options
for setting up two computer labs at UNG. The limited
budget and the availability of very old computer resources were key points to consider when making a
final decision (Martnez-Mateo et al., 2009).
The use of thin client technology in computer
labs proved to be a success, especially taking into
account that it was tested in a really tough environment, where there were no qualified staff, apart from a
technical support staff working exclusively on maintenance. The project was considered a success due
to (Martnez-Mateo et al., 2010): (i) the increase in
the number of subjects that were offered over an elearning platform like Moodle using the new computer labs, (ii) the increase in the number of students
choosing to study at UNG, and (iii) the offer of a new
course (fourth year) as result of student demand and
the new subjects offered.

Multimedia learning, which is a discipline that

has been especially developed in certain sectors
of education, such as medicine (Ruiz et al., 2006).
Mobile learning. As stated in Section 4.4, elearning strategies calling for student mobility can
not be implemented with thin clients. These scenarios require the use of special devices that are
not covered by the current thin client technology.
Although there are unsuitable scenarios related to
multimedia, video, and other high-motion resources,
the majority of computer-based scenarios do not require these features. Therefore, thin client technology
is an alternative that is worthwhile considering.

CONCLUSIONS

Computer-based learning methodologies and related

infrastructures are essential nowadays at any level of
the academic world. Computer labs and required ICT
are becoming an economic and staff resource barrier
for all educational institutions. Thus efforts to provide
more effective solutions will have a practical impact
on education.
Thin client technologies have proven to be a good
option for reducing budget and maintenance requirements in scenarios with more than five to eight computers. However, it would be a mistake to defend this
solution without examining what use is going to be
made of the lab equipment. There are many educational scenarios where thin clients are cheaper to use,
easier to maintain and easier to upgrade. In this paper, we have identified the main advantages and limitations of thin clients regarding the most common scenarios. A widespread of this technology in some cases
would improve global computer literacy.

4.6 Unsuitable Scenarios

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Although tt is important to ascertain the main scenarios where the use of thin client technology is suitable,
it is even more necessary to identify scenarios where
this technology should be avoided. To identify scenarios that are unsuitable for the use of client technology,
always keep in mind the key weakness highlighted in
Section 3: high-motion. A list of scenarios that are
not suitable for thin clients follows:

We would like to thank the Universidad Politecnica de

Madrids Office of Cooperation for the Development
for its financial an logistic support5, and the members of TEDECO group for their interest, constructive
comments and active participation in the development
of this paper.

Distance learning, unless it requires the physical

presence of students in a classroom.
4 http://tedeco.fi.upm.es

5 This work is partially supported by the project MESTUN (Monitoring, evaluation and technological sustainability of the University of Ngozi) funded by the call 2009
of the Direction of Cooperation for the Development of the
Technical University of Madrid.

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