Imagine doing your studies in the field of Ancient Greek culture.
You have a large library of Greek texts - naturally.

However, you might also have:
Several databases to consult?
Online documents to print, such as publications?
Save some important notes to a flash drive for safe keeping.
While doing that, send some email to colleagues requesting information about some subject you are researching?

That's exactly what happens at the Center for Hellenic Studies, a research institute affiliated with Harvard University located in Washington D.C.

A T1000/Open Client set-up is in place there right now, taking care of the tasks described above. Flash drives can be connected to the open client, CUPS take care of the printing facilities and multiple printers are available to each Open Client.
Open Office, Firefox, AbiWord, Gnumeric. Gftp for file transfer. Gaim for instant messaging... it's all there.
Even a little applet to keep track of the weather forecast, just in case you wonder if you will get wet later that day :-)

Below are some screen shots of how it looks like.

These Open Clients are installed at two floors of the library (where silence is very much appreciated). Visitors can also use them to check email and browse the web.

Standard desktop after login:



Desktop showing Firefox and Abiword. Notice the Mac-style window decorations. Many of the people were used to OSX, so this should make them feel more at home:



Another screen shot showing Open Office:




The pictures below show people using the systems. They were very excited about the power and versatility of the little Open Client systems. The fact that it is completely noiseless, and consuming only 10 Watt was liked very much!