[K12OSN] Anyone quantified savings using LTSP?

[ssh at tranquility.net]

On Mon, 2008-01-28 at 14:47 -0500, Rob Owens wrote:
<snip>


> The real alternative for us was putting laptops at each machine.  This 
> ironically turned out to be cheaper--it's on sale for $528.  

Speaking of laptops, the best-suited laptop in the world for a machine
shop would be a Panasonic Toughbook. This is the ruggedized laptop the
military has used for years. Recent models are crazy expensive, but the
most rugged version of all would make an excellent thin client. A CF-28
was available in three models, 600mhz, 800mhz and 1ghz. All are PIII,
all come with 256 meg onboard. It has a magnesium case, and I can (and
have) stood on it. 

There was a dizzying array of options available including, modem,
cell/analog connect (with a cool internal whip antenna), ethernet,
internal GPS, all have two miniPCI slots. They have two traditional
PCMCIA slots, and all CF-28 have a third hidden slot, that is often
loaded with a Cisco 350 wifi card.

I got one for wardriving, and I am totally impressed. There are three
keyboards available, I would avoid the full rubber backlit one, it is
difficult to type on. They are very easy to work on, and some of the
guys in a Toughbook forum go nuts adding stuff to it.

The reason I mention this, there has been a CF-28 feeding frenzy on
Evilbay for the last few weeks. A couple of places are unloading a lot
of them. The hard drive caddies are often missing as they were
decommissioned, and that's an expensive foam and gel-padded item. For
LTSP, no HD needed of course, so that would be a help. People are
picking them up for under USD $200, but recent models are USD $3k and
up.
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