The Juicebox, cloud desktops for Schools / other low budget groups.

[C7J0yc3]

So I was surfing Engadget and came across this

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/24/neverwares-juicebox-100-squeezes-new-life-into-aging-school-com/

The Juicebox. Basically it is a VDI that can be PXE booted to. This is a great concept, but didn't we already do this with VMware View and Microsoft RDX not to mention others? And most schools can get charity licensing or use tech soup so the licensing cost of the CALs or VMware isn't that big of an issue. As far as the hardware goes, a couple fully loaded Dell R610s (esp with education pricing) and maybe a MD3200i to house everything is well within budget for most schools looking to replace desktops.

Also I found their comment about replacing desktops every four years a bit funny, I don't know any schools that get rid of their stuff every four years. But what do you guys think? Would you buy this or go with a current proven technology?

 

[yankees9920]

is there any free/open source software that performs similarly to this. Which from what I gathered, boots into a PXE environment with a login screen and you login and it assigns you to a running VM, is that correct?

 

[Netwerkz101]

Linux Terminal Server Project (ltsp.org) - the poor man's way pre-VDI.

This may be poor man's VDI ... may catch on in the non-profit, not-for-profit, no-budget, low-budget
organizations.

Who will set it up and maintain it?

I'm going to P-O-C XenDesktop + Wyse Viance at some point in the near future.