On Sunday 29 Jan 2012 05:26:28 Grant wrote:
> I'd like to have multiple users working from separate monitors,
> keyboards, and mice, but all connected to a single Gentoo computer.
> The main purpose is to minimize sys admin duties but hardware and
> power requirements would also be minimized.
> 
> Apparently this is called "multiseat" and native support in Xorg might
> not be ready for primetime:
> 
> http://wiki.x.org/wiki/Development/Documentation/Multiseat
> http://vignatti.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/multiseat-roadmap
> 
> There is a configuration tool for Xorg multiseat called MDM:
> 
> http://wiki.c3sl.ufpr.br/multiseat/index.php/Mdm
> 
> but from what I've read it isn't ideal.  Besides Xorg multiseat I've
> read about LTSP and a few others:
> 
> http://www.ltsp.org
> http://www.thinstation.org
> http://automseat.sourceforge.net
> http://www.openthinclient.org
> 
> There are also a lot of proprietary options.  Is LTSP the way to go?

It may be, but as with all thin client models you would need a terminal 
computer for each user.

If you only have one machine and monitors, keyboards and mice for each user 
then you'll need multiple video cards (and a strong power supply) for your 
only PC.  In this case something like http://automseat.sourceforge.net may be 
more appropriate.  However, I have not used anything like this set up to offer 
an opinion on performance.

At work we use thin clients running Debian to serve MSWindows server desktop 
and apps to users.  This setup uses the Citrix ica protocol, but I'm thinking 
that FreeNX coupled with VNC or relevant KDE or Gnome remote desktop 
implementation would probably work nicely and offer LAN and remote connection 
security at the same time.
-- 
Regards,
Mick