It's worth doing, provided you need *nix facilities. For just browsing and RDP, either the Winterm's thinOS or Windows CE is perfectly adequate. Note that various Winterms are low power, but do not suspend to use even less power (i.e. they *always* use 20W even when off) whilst low power PCs will suspend to use even less.
A USB external drive will work, but will add about 8W+ to power requirements. A USB key is probably somewhat less. The flash on a winterm can be upgraded, although using a special NAND flash in compact flash format (*not* a true CF card) card. Extra RAM can be added to many (standard SODIMM).
The flash is updated either by parallel cable, or via TFTP; both can be patched to run Linux, and if the image is properly prepared, at quite low risk. The main problem is that the display chipset is poorly supported, and needs high CPU utilisation to work.
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Winterms..
It's worth doing, provided you need *nix facilities. For just browsing and RDP, either the Winterm's thinOS or Windows CE is perfectly adequate. Note that various Winterms are low power, but do not suspend to use even less power (i.e. they *always* use 20W even when off) whilst low power PCs will suspend to use even less.
A USB external drive will work, but will add about 8W+ to power requirements. A USB key is probably somewhat less. The flash on a winterm can be upgraded, although using a special NAND flash in compact flash format (*not* a true CF card) card. Extra RAM can be added to many (standard SODIMM).
The flash is updated either by parallel cable, or via TFTP; both can be patched to run Linux, and if the image is properly prepared, at quite low risk. The main problem is that the display chipset is poorly supported, and needs high CPU utilisation to work.