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If you can get by with Linux/OpenBSD/FreeBSD, PXE boot is the way to go; with a read-only network share for applications, and a read-write one for user files. Greatly reduces TCO--only one HD, only one machine to maintain, and any virus intrusions on clients can be cleared with a reboot.

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End user operations will be 100% Windows based and I won't be involved in the operation long term. Also, whoever is, probably won't know Linux at all, let alone at a sys admin level.

But I like the idea of having one machine to maintain. What's the best mechanic for that on Windows?

Windows can also do PXE boot. It's just a little rougher around the edges in that application than most of the unixes are.

I think the Windows approach here would be to have one beefy server, and a bunch of thin-clients that connect to the server using RDP. For security & ease-of-maintenance, you would probably want those thin-clients connecting to individual Windows VMs hosted on the server, rather than accounts on the server itself. Of course, streaming games & video over RDP is going to suck.

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