Hey Little Buddy, Don't Be Jealous...

OK, a week before getting my new iPhone we received the Helios-LX from Thin Labs, Inc. The Helios is sweet to say the least! It's a touchscreen thin client that has no fan or hard drive. Instead the system comes with a 256 MB Flash Card. Let's just say this baby is bad ass -- and before the iPhone showed up the coolest piece of technology in the office. The entire computer is stored in the back of the monitor -- and its still pretty light. The production version we use will not have a keyboard or mouse. Touchscreen all the way! This will be our production thin client; Pizza Order's will be queued up for display here and once an order is acknowledged and accepted instructions on how to place and layer the ingredients will be displayed for the line worker. This little baby also has VESA mounts on the back so right into the wall on a swivel it goes.

This bad boy was only $849! Read: cheap, disposable computer that rarely fails and is easy to replace and maintain!

So far, I am very impressed with the client. It comes with an embedded Linux OS and has several pre-built in types of connections such as X11, SSH, VNC, RDP, etc. You can run the client in desktop, kiosk or super kiosk mode. In desktop mode, the connections you create show up as icons, in kiosk mode they don't; however, you can get back to the desktop, and finally in super kiosk mode you pick one application to run and the user cannot change away from it. For the line production systems, we will use super kiosk mode. It took me no time to get X11 client tunneling over SSH to a Linux Server. Very cool!

However, I have ran into four annoyances so far with the Helios-LX.

1. The manual did not ship on the machine. Had to contact the sales representative for it. Also, he is shipping it to me. No electronic copies?
2. The BIOS has a password on it, again had to contact sales representative for it.
3. The SSH connection always prompts for password, I cannot embed a password in the connection. However, almost all of the other connections let me do this.
4. The Wake On LAN does not seem to be working. This *may* be my fault -- but I don't think so, more research is required.

All of these are minor issues for the prototype. Issues #1 and #2 were easily resolved. Issue #3 is really just a minor annoyance because I intend to PXE boot these systems with our own images anyways. Issue #4 could be a real problem, but, this is just a prototype so if it is a limited issue then it can be resolved.

In addition to two touch screens, each delivery unit will also have two desktop machines, here I will likely go with the Argus-LX.

With these thin clients, I should be able to construct what I feel will be the ideal delivery unit environment. Which consists of this:

1. Two production touch-screens. Each one will PXE boot, pick up its latest image and then use X Windows to run the production line software. Automatic login information will be stored on a USB thumb drive that plugs into the back of the monitor. Now here comes the magic! If a system fails (likely because of the screen, remember it has NO moving parts) then any person (read no technical skill required) unplugs the unit, puts a new one on and plugs the old USB in the back.
2. Two office computers, one for the manager and one for employees in the break room. The office computer will have connections to allow for inventory management, web browsing, and other on-line activities. The break room computer will only allow web surfing. Again, each machine PXE boots.
3. Between PXE and Wake On LAN no one should ever have to maintain these computers except in the rare case where they need to be replaced. I will automatically turn off the computers at night and automatically turn them on remotely a few hours before the store opens. Aghhh... Computing the way it was meant to be!

I'll be keeping you posted on what I learn along the way and I will continue sharing information about the Helios-LX and Argus-LX.

So, don't be jealous Helios-LX. The iPhone may be cooler than you, but, not by much.

Anyone else have any experience with these thin clients?

Anyone out there got any good experience with PXE or Wake On LAN?