Hello,
The company I work for purchased a Server back in 2003 with Microsoft windows Network 2003 software. The person making the final buying decision was talked into ordering THIN Clients instead of desktops. The Devon IT Thin Clients were the worst decision ever, as they can't handle the amount of information being fed from the server to the individual work stations. They freeze up or disconnect from the server multiple times every day. The person that purchased the thin clients is no longer with the company. I am not an IT person and I'm looking for better advice than the sales guy at our IT service company can give. The thin clients have started dying and everyone is looking to me to decide what to replace them with. The owner of the company WOULD like the workstations to be mobile, so I'm looking at laptops or netbooks. I need advice, because I don't want to be the person who REPLACED one bad system with another. I have already decided every laptop will get a separate full size keyboard and screen, so the size of the actual laptop is not an issue as LONG as it has at least 3 usb ports, a port for a network cable, and the processing power to connect to the server. Employees will not need to save any information to the laptop. Any suggestions? Will a netbook work? ThanksIt all depends on your budget. Since you are buying separate monitors and keyboards I recommend a universal docking station. They make it much easier to hook up and unhook a laptop.

Even low cost laptops will probably be faster than your existing terminals.

I would stick with name brands with good warranties.

Personally, for a business, I would stay away from netbooks. Others MAY disagree with that, but that's just my opinion.A critical factor in the equation is how much time do you have before the replacement equipment needs to be in place? If your company does business with other companies that use this type of office environment i would suggest talking to their people to find out what they think about their system. What to they like what would they change.
Taking the time to learn from the experiences of other --the good and the bad--will help to make a better decision. As this will undoubtedly involve a fair amount of money and commit the company to an operational environment for years to come the time should be taken to do it as well as possible. People here are quite knowledgeable in many ways but i would want to be getting at least part of my knowledge from actual users of a system i might wish to concider. truenorth