LTSP is very impressive, on reading the docs a bit further - despite the name, it can actually support *both* local apps (running on the diskless workstation) and remote apps (server-based in Windows parlance, i.e. running on the server). The latter is the only option with Windows Terminal Server (or Citrix MetaFrame), so LTSP is much more flexible.
If you have fairly old PCs (386, 486, Pentium), just buy a modern server and run the apps there. Even old Windows boxes or Macs will be fine - they just need to run an X server. More work to set up, but worth trying if the old hardware is still reliable and can run Linux without hassles.
If you need to run more compute-intensive apps and have the budget, you can buy new diskless workstation PCs. This is probably easier to set up, too, but the key thing is you have a choice of models - and whichever model you use, the system admin load is very low, because only the server needs administering.
See http://www.ltsp.org/documentation/lts_ig_v2.3/lts_ ig_v2.3-8.html for discussion of local vs. remote apps.
LTSP more flexible than Windows Terminal Server (Score:2)
If you have fairly old PCs (386, 486, Pentium), just buy a modern server and run the apps there. Even old Windows boxes or Macs will be fine - they just need to run an X server. More work to set up, but worth trying if the old hardware is still reliable and can run Linux without hassles.
If you need to run more compute-intensive apps and have the budget, you can buy new diskless workstation PCs. This is probably easier to set up, too, but the key thing is you have a choice of models - and whichever model you use, the system admin load is very low, because only the server needs administering.
See http://www.ltsp.org/documentation/lts_ig_v2.3/lts