[K12OSN] Given this situation, why bother continue with LTSP?

[The Prof]

Hello again,

So an idea - what about dual-booting everything?  I think someone may
have suggested that as a possibility.

Details: I checked with the gentleman helping us, and the details of
the machines are: Dell GX150 as clients (PIII 1.1 Ghz, 256 MB Ram),
and a Proliant 5500 Pentium Pro Quad processor with 8 gig. In terms of
software, he has reassurred me that the licenses do not expire for
non-profit organizations like us, so there will be no need to
repurchase in the future. He is a trustworthy person and he won't be
benefitting from this transaction at all (except perhaps in the
spiritual sense :) ) so no reason to doubt his word.

Now, I am more than sure the workstations will be no problem, and from
what I was able to tell from the listserver archives, the Proliant
should be at least as good as our current server (Pentium 4, 2.8 GHz,
2 gig RAM) if not better.

So is there a way I can set up the clients so that they, by default,
boot up as LTSP cilents, unless you specify something, in which case
they will boot up as Windows XP machines? That way I can use the
Proliant as a LTSP server, convert the Pentium 4 server to a Windows
Server Machine, and have both systems running?  Or is there another
option? And how many clients do you think such a system could handle?

thank you again,
Joseph