Instances of a server?

First off, I'm not sure if this is the right term for this, but here goes.

At my school, we were working in one of the tech labs when I needed to copy some files to my flash drive. I realized I couldn't find the actual computer. I eventually looked on the back of the monitor and saw a tiny little box which was way to small to be an actual computer, but it had all the ports and stuff. When I inquired about this later, I was told that all the computers were connected to a server; the little box basically just let the server output to the monitor and provided ports, etc. This was also why all the workstations were running Windows Server instead of plain Windows.

What I want to know is how I can do this with a Linux server. If I understood correctly, each computer was running a different instance of the same server; all the students were logged in simultaneously, and were recreating the effect of a normal desktop computer.

How can I recreate this effect using my server at home?

EDIT: After a helpful comment from David Schwartz, I found this on Amazon (just as an example). It says it's compatible with Fedora 18. Does this mean it's not compatible with other Linux distros?

Thanks!

evamvid

Posted 2014-03-03T20:57:54.337

Reputation: 393

Punch "RDP thin client" into your favorite search engine. – David Schwartz – 2014-03-03T21:13:23.803

exactly! Now I just need to figure out server-side config. Thanks! – evamvid – 2014-03-03T21:14:45.473

For that, punch "RDP linux server" into your favorite search engine. – David Schwartz – 2014-03-03T21:15:30.217

Whoa! So this is all just remote desktop? Cool! But how can you have multiple users logged in simultaneously? – evamvid – 2014-03-03T21:19:56.020

Linux machines have never cared whether logins, consoles, and/or terminals belonged to the same user or different users. – David Schwartz – 2014-03-03T21:28:32.273

@evamvid "How can you have multiple users logged in simultaneously?" On Windows it's called Remote Desktop Services. That's why they are running a Server version of Windows, not a regular version. See my answer for how to do it on Linux.

– Moshe Katz – 2014-03-03T21:57:17.793

Which one do you think would work better for repurposing an extremely old laptop as a thin client? – evamvid – 2014-03-03T23:51:08.480

@evamid there's not an easy way to answer that question, because all of these projects have their proponents and each one offers a slightly different featureset and/or method of configuration. The simple answer is "it's not too hard to try both and see which one you like better." – Moshe Katz – 2014-03-04T02:34:37.393

Instances of a server?

Answers