Nifty Asterisk PC reviver saves school $100,000

By ADAM GIFFORD

Switching to thin clients. Recycling old PCs. They are concepts which sound good to do, but don't get done because they are too much trouble or the costs and benefits can't be made to stack up.

Auckland Linux specialist Asterisk has combined both ideas into one nifty device which means thin client computing can be paid for out of petty cash while using up those expensive, but obsolete, boxes cluttering up the storeroom.

The $260 Asterisk PC Reviver is a card which replaces the PC's hard drive and contains the embedded Linux operating system and other software needed to connect to the network and drive monitors and other peripherals.

Wellington High School ICT systems manager Dan Dempsey said the school bought 50 PC Revivers.

"We are about to do an upgrade to Windows 2000, and there were about 50 older machines which would not have been able to handle the new operating system," he said.

"In the past we would have had a fire sale ... Instead, we plugged them in and have an instant network."

He said the savings from not having to buy new machines amounted to almost $100,000. Authorised users will also be able to access a Linux server, which will be used to teach database design and Linux programming for senior students.

Asterisk director Chris Hegan said because the operating system was on the card, the hour or more of labour needed to reformat the hard drive and install a new operating system was dispensed with.

The card includes on flash memory the Citrix ICA protocol, Microsoft's RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) and the Linux VNC (Virtual Network Computer).