The only thing they're not designed to run is sophisticated graphics-heavy programs. But the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago is using the terminals to provide Web-based access to the library's digital card catalog and Web pages. IIT's library software is run by a Dell Poweredge server with 512 MB of RAM and dual processors. Although it is not necessary for serving applications, the Metaframe allows for remote use of applications and includes features such as load balancing, which prevents crashing. Finally, the server has Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and all the necessary plug-ins.
All terminals run the same copy of the browser.
Christopher Stewart, associate dean for library technology at IIT, says the PCs that were being used before cost up to four times more than the terminals, which are smaller than Macintosh G4 cubes. Each terminal is configured to automatically launch the Web browser when turned on and takes between two and eight megabytes of RAM from the server. That allows all the terminals to run from one place. IIT has also recently added software for barcoding, inventory, and database projects to the server. Upgrading is simply a matter of running additional Windows applications.