Microsoft to schools: Share a PC
Sharing a computer doesn't have to mean sharing a computer.
Microsoft is working on a new product, due out next year, that will let multiple students work independently and simultaneously off a single PC.
Although each student will have their own mouse, keyboard and screen--and be able to work on their own application--the computation will be done by a single PC running a new version of Microsoft's Windows Server operating system. The new product is being dubbed Windows Multipoint Server 2010.
Windows Multipoint Server, due out in the first half of next year, allows a multiple students to work off a single PC, each running their own applications and off their own keyboard, mouse and display.
(Credit: Microsoft)"Over the past few years, we at Microsoft have been exploring the area of shared resource computing--a new computing category that allows a customer to tap into a computer's excess capability to let a single computer support multiple users simultaneously," Multipoint Server General Manager Ira Snyder said in a blog posting. "In the world of education, shared resource computing has great potential to extend the reach and utilization of affordable computing for students."
The approach is similar to one taken by NComputing, a start-up run by former e-Machines CEO Stephen Dukker. Will Poole, the former Windows executive who also led Microsoft's emerging markets efforts for a time, serves as NComputing's co-chairman. NComputing sells Windows and Linux-based systems to both schools and businesses.
Multipoint Server can handle up to 10 different set-ups, each with their own keyboard, mouse, and monitor. The product is based on the latest server OS--Windows Server 2008 R2. Systems running the new software will be built by computer makers, who will then offer them to schools in the U.S. and across the globe.
The product shares a name--but is separate--from an existing MultiPoint product that allows students to each have their own mouse and work off a single display. (Note that the story I link to has Poole--then at Microsoft--talking about the MultiPoint mouse.)
Microsoft hasn't said what it will charge for the product, but on the software side, Multipoint-based systems require a license for the server and then a client access license for each set-up that is connected to it.
For now, Microsoft says it's aiming the product only at the education market.
Update: I asked NComputing for comment and expect to have something later Thursday. In the mean time, I asked Microsoft for its thoughts on what this means for NComputing. Here's what I got back:
Microsoft does not wish to comment on its relationship with NComputing at this time. Through the implementation of Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 and other shared resource computing solutions, we believe that education scenarios including school labs, classrooms and libraries can greatly benefit by potentially reducing total cost of ownership and providing more users with access to computing. We believe that with Windows MultiPoint Server 2010, we can deliver great value with a platform that provides a stable and well-supported Windows experience for a shared environment.There are many companies, like NComputing, who also offer shared resource computing solutions. Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 is a product that will be available to all OEMs, and we encourage third party providers in the shared resource computing space to participate with this product.
Update 2, 4:15 p.m. PT: In a telephone interview, Poole indicated that NComputing was likely to be among the companies selling products based on MultiPoint server.
"We knew it was coming," Poole said. "We obviously have close relationships with Microsoft. We have not announced any products here yet but you should assume that we would."
The availability of the software option from Microsoft could bring more competition, Poole acknowledged, but said there is enough demand for shared computing to support additional players in the market.
"It certainly could create additional competition coming in and we feel fine about that," Poole said.
About three-quarters of NComputing's sales are in the academic market, with the remainder coming from the business space, Poole said. Just this week, NComputing announced a large deal with India's Employee State Insurance Corporation. There NComputing, along with Wipro, will be setting up 31,000 virtual desktops throughout the country.
The "vast majority" of NComputing's sales are of Windows-based systems, Poole said, although NComputing also offers Linux-based options.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
Kudos to MSFT on this one.
A really inexpensive solution would be using nComputing boxes ($200 each) attached via USB to a computer (you can stack up to 12 of those onto a single Core Duo-based box and share the load).
Either way this isn't going to be much cheaper... the cards/devices which split the computer up will likely still cost money, as will the inevitable licensing fees (and it will likely require a pretty significant change in how a classroom is set up).
:/
The use of Linux for the solution would be great up front- until it needed service at which point it would be unlikely the school district would have a Linux person on staff to service the equipment. That's an added expense of their salary to work on the systems. If they use a Mac or Windows OS, then it's much easier for anyone to service for the OS issues.
The entire idea of a server with workstations is nothing new- and long predates anything Unix, Windows, or Mac.
Not as unlikely as you would think in most metro areas, and it's not like Linux requires some secret arcane skillset (most CS-oriented kids nowadays already have at least a working familiarity with it).
I agree with Vegaman_Dan. Linux is great but its not for consumers.
Someone once told me that "developers write windows apps for users while developer write Linux apps for other developers".
Ps. i haven't seen where you need "specialized hardware" to do this? Did I miss something?
Plus schools have always been given a really cheap licensing deal...so its less of an issue.
Linux is as user-friendly, if not more so, than Windows. And it has none of the problems that have plagued Windows for ages, like viruses etc.
The argument that the school district would not have a Linux expert on staff is a strawman. They don't have a Windows expert on staff, either, and are lost as soon as there is a virus on their systems.
Quick - how do you attach four monitors, mice, and keyboards to one PC?
(it's not exactly rocket science to figure out that there's going to be some non-standard PC hardware involved, is it?)
Joe F2 is also correct - the odds of finding a "windows expert" is going to be just as slim (a "PowerUser" maybe, but I bet they'd get lost awful quickly with this new setup...)
that's what we call "technology". Not many people have $$$ to buy a computer. Look at Asian or African countries! they don't even have money to buy foods. They hardly dream to use a cheap PC (unix or MS). Apple products are out of their dreams.
Why not combine 10 PCs in a cost of 1?
It is all out there already.
Face it - schools are cheap, and kids are brutal on technology in the classroom. That's why they need to replace PCs every year in the local schools.
Also, if you only need one platform for every ten kids, you can afford one spare to cycle through on failures. For a twenty seat tech lab, you now have four (one per five) boxes plus a spare instead of twenty individual boxes.
Realistically, how often does your computer fail? I have one laptop and two desktops in my office, three desktops and a laptop at home, that is seven machines total. The only hardware failures I have hit in the last five years were a 1) a brand new Seagate laptop drive that started to fail within two hours of being installed (upgrading for more space) 2) a laptop CPU fan that failed within a month of unpacking the machine, and 3) a PS2 keyboard port on a desktop that failed after four years. On that last one, I just upgraded to a USB keyboard and mouse, still using the old desktop.
Simple, yet effective. I like it. Though it is not really new. Even Microsoft had it before (with Xenix). But for the last twenty years, I haven't seen anything like this in production (no, it's not like X-Windows, it is more like a mainframe, but with a rich UI).
This may just be a repackaging of existing tech in a way that is more presentable.
Considering these kids aren't likely going to be running heavy database apps or the latest version of Gears of War, then sharing the power of a single system out to run terminals should be fine.
HOWEVER, there is the issue when that one machine goes down, the whole thing goes down. This is true of any single server / multiple terminal setup.
And anyway, if I'm reading the article right, they're cheating and running multiple instances of Windows in virtual machines.
Plus, if users are all run with reduced privileges, your virus installation example fails.
Consider it a Terminal server allowing multiple clients; they can't shut it down nor can they access each other profile or files. What has to happen is finding a way to connect multiple keyboards, mouse and screens; without a direct connect PC, like the Old Wang thin client setup.
For the information of those who believe Windows 2008 R2 is similar to XP or Vista, you are mistaken. The main problem with users who cause havock is not that the PC crash on it's own; it's their stupidity. No PC user should be allowed to run with full Admin access locally and most people do. They even refuse to update the anti-virus and will click on anything that say...click me.
Lastly, it can work but finding a way to support graphics, mouse, keyboard in a multi-format server is going to be a beast. I'd prefer having bare bone PC's connected via Terminal services than just devices that share resourse on the server end.
Sun called it "the network is the computer" in 2000.
A really old hat.
As usual, Microsoft is about 20 years late to the party.
And since it is free with Linux, cash-strapped school districts should have that already.
I
However, there is no reason why they have to be thin clients to make this happen. Most video cards can run at least 2 independent displays now. Once that can power 4 aren't that uncommon and you can get some that will drive 16. All you need is a breakout box and software that can power multiple concurrent sessions. You really can do this with just a monitor, keyboard, and mouse at each station.
Windows has NOT done that in the 90ies. The Citrix addition has done that. Eventually, Microsoft came out with their own Terminal Services, which competes with Citrix.
But in any case, it is an ugly hack because Windows is not designed for that. All it is is different "sessions". With Vista, they broke a lot of services because they made the first user session session 1, so services that required user interaction wouldn't work anymore...
Contrast that with the simplicity of a real multi-user system like Unix...
Not too many schools were (are) readily able to lay out that kind of bank, yanno?
hehe... You've never taken classes with our old computer teacher. We used to play Halo on our school PCs on LAN. The Entire class would be playing Halo(16 or so students) . Even the teacher would play with us sometimes.
We all got an A on that class...
Technology is circular. You had the old mainframes with dumb terminals. Then you had "Open Systems" moving everything out to the desktop. Then, you had XTerms all using a central processing host. Then you had cheap PCs. Then Sun said, hey, let's revisit the "thin client" and came out with the J-stations and then SunRay servers. Then back to standalones. Then Citrix starts their offering. Then VMware and a couple others started offering VDI products.
For the last 10 years of this cycle, people have been reusing old computers as cheap xterms slung off their more powerful PCs. Some people even started putting cards into their big PCs and hanging extra keyboards, monitors and mice off them and using Linux's multi-user/multi-display capabilities to do the same thing that Microsoft's now announcing.
Welcome to the game, Microsoft. It's taken you this long to join?
Unix and Linux are designed as multi-user systems from the ground up, so this whole scenario comes natural with them.
Microsoft needs to put yet another kludge on top of Windows to get something that resembles what Unix had from day one.
Less PC hardwares that take up a lot of space and heat from all those PCs!!! 10 students to work off 1 PC is a good idea.
This will be ideal for my family at home where all the family members can use the PC in one common area for parental guidance on the kids. Just share off from a Core2Quad PC with 8+ GB RAM in 64-bit OS!!!
I fully support this!
It obviously is YOU who doesn't get it...
Linux has had 64-bit support for longer than Windows. And Linux handles multiple processors easily. In fact, it handles more processors than Windows does.
And as far as the broader range of educational software is concerned, ever heard of Wine???
So, again, the solution is available TODAY.
But the question is: why would they install Linux, and get themselves into a platform they don't know, with applications they don't have, with an interface that doesn't match what the text books say? To save fifty bucks?
Linux has its uses. Even in academia. Teaching fifth graders how to use a computer to do their homework is not one of them.
Hint: IA_64 and x86_64 are two radically different architectures. ;)
Support for IItanium, a dead technology, yes, that's what MS may have had. They once also had support for ARM, etc.
Support for x86-64 was in Linux before it was in Windows.
And Linux is of course suited to everything Windows is suited, and more. That includes teaching 5th-graders on how to use a computer to do their homework. What do they need? A word processor, a browser. That all works just fine on a linux box. The kids don't do Windows driver development...
- by zmb09 November 12, 2009 3:59 PM PST
- Sure has to beat an iMac (what I'm stuck with)
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