Low-cost multi-user Linux terminal server?

[webgiant at juno.com]

I was flipping through the news on www.linux.org, and I ran across the following article 
(PCWorld.com, originally from Reuters, URL shrunk using tinyurl.co.uk):

http://tinyurl.co.uk/tigy 

The article talks about HP's new low-cost Linux computer which can support up to four keyboards and 
monitors.  HP has developed this computer for cash-strapped school districts in Africa.  The hitch 
is that it has only developed enough for the cash-strapped school districts in Africa, and not 
enough to serve more well-off African districts nearby, on the well-known business practice of 
selling only the product which the market can afford, and not selling a cheaper product just 
because it can.  And of course they are not available in U.S. markets either.

I got to thinking about this.  What with the proliferation of used computer hardware which is 
probably too slow to run an effective school Linux computer (these are teenagers, after all, with 
the same attention spans as any other teenager) but which are fast enough to receive X windows 
served up by a much faster central server.

What would, in your opinion, be the slowest set of hardware (one somewhat fast central server 
computer, and four somewhat slower PCs to be used as terminals) you would be able to entice a 
teenager into using for school purposes?  I was thinking in terms of cash-strapped African school 
districts purchasing the new HP systems, and then selling them to the more well-off school 
districts once local American charities started sending them the kind of 5 used PC systems we're 
talking about here.

American kids sell candy for fundraising purposes.  Cash-strapped African school districts selling 
computers for fundraising purposes.  It could happen!  :)

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