[TriLUG] Xubuntu for Thin Clients

[James McDermott]

Hello All,

We are starting to build a small thin-client demo network for a
classroom environment. 

The recommended requirements for the thin-client computer is a 300 MHz
P2 with 64 MB RAM and a 4MB display card. The thin-client computer can
run with no hard drive on the machine.  
 
Xubuntu is advertised as a good OS for thin-clients?

I am wondering why we should have an OS installed on our thin-clients? I
speculate that maybe this gives us the ability to reboot the thin-client
machines into a Xubuntu session if the server was down? 

If the server is down, will the thin-client try to boot to the network
(fail) and then automatically boot from the hard drive (assuming the
correct boot order is set in BIOS)? 

Does PXE enabled NIC booting or booting using a etherboot floppy require
that the machine have an installed OS?

Our server will be a P4 running Edubuntu.

If you have any thoughts about why we should install an OS like Xubuntu
in the P2 thin-clients, please advise. 

Thanks,

Jim McDermott