Ever thought one of your USB video notebook docks can turn into a Linux thin workstations? Now it's possible with Userful's nifty utility and best of all, it's free. With the Canadian company's Multiseat Linux 2011, a single machine whether it be a desktop or laptop can emulate up to ten USB docks as independent Edubuntu thin clients. The only requirement is that the video docks must be running Displaylink video-over-USB core. There is already a large number of notebook docking stations from various brands so your choice won't be limited by availability problems.
This solution certainly comes in handy for schools with a very tight budget as most of the open-source Linux software titles incurs no licensing fee. And with this kind of centralized setup, schools only have to worry about protecting one Linux machine rather than a room full of PCs. In the video demo after the jump, you'll see the virtual thin clients are capable of handling full multimedia applications. Also interesting is that the teacher can spy on what the student activities in separate mini windows right on the host's monitor.
