How?

How did we go about it?

We saw our role as three-fold:

• Alerting people to the fact that traditional networked computing will never be sustainable in the long term
• Demonstrating that viable alternatives exist now and work in the real world
• Enabling those who could benefit from these new models of computing to get access to it

In terms of technology, our strategy was to combine a novel kind of ultra-thin-client networking hardware with Open Source software.

Ndiyo stimulated the creation of a new company, DisplayLink, which produced a novel piece of hardware called the Nivo (Network In, Video Out). The Nivo was an ethernet-connected ultra-thin client, which if produced in sufficient quantity could allow provision of a networked computer workstation for something closer to the cost of a VGA cable than that of a PC!  DisplayLink now produces silicon for USB-connected graphics, which can be harnessed for Ndiyo-type operation using the Hubster model.

Combining the Nivo with open-source software on an Ndiyo server provides a robust, affordable and more sustainable way of providing a group of networked workstations. You can read about our system here. We operated a number of trial deployments of the Ndiyo system in various parts of the world.

Our object in doing this was to demonstrate that a radically different way of doing networked computing is not just desirable, but eminently feasible. We've found that nothing convinces people like being able to see for themselves.

Have a look at what makes up an Ndiyo system.