At my school I found 8 new computers set up at an area where no one really goes. The keyboard, monitor, and mouse were all Dell, but there wasn't a tower. Then I noticed there was this silver box thing attached to the back of the monitor. I didn't really get a good look at it, so, after spending hours on google images looking for a match, I found this, and I'm pretty sure this is it. I'm a technology addict, and I've never seen one of these before. They must be like really new. I though they were pretty cool. Right now, my school buys Dell Optiplex 755 towers that are like $800 each, but they save everything on a server! There is absolutely NOTHING saved on any of the towers. It's such a waste of money, so I thought these were pretty cool. Anyway, to make a long story short, are these [MuStations] really that stable? They looks rather sketchy. And how exactly do they work? I can't find a clear answer on Google. I wanna see about buying a couple since there so darn cheap.

What you're thinking of are thin clients. They're typically rather expensive, though the long-term savings is based off of the fact that they reduce the tech staff size (if you can use 10 servers instead of 100 desktops) and draw less power (when comparing the draw of 5-10 servers and 100 thin clients to that of 1-2 servers and 100 "fat" clients).

Yeah, that's what they are. These must be the effect of the budget cuts we got..

My school has the exact same things, except they're dell computers.

Adding to what Bob said, a lot of times schools use them so people don't tamper with the computers.

My Elementary school had those, except really cheap ones since the mouse or keyboard sometime wouldn't work. It was set up so that there were lets say 20 monitors. There was one of those boxes for every monitor, but a set of 4 would connect to one desktop(A.K.A. Tower). The desktops have a PCI card with 4 ports. The ports had 4 white wires plugged in,and the wires led to the boxes, 1 wire per box. The boxes then had the mouse, keyboard, monitor, etc., plugged in. That basically makes them use only 5 desktops (lets say the desktops are $600 each), compared to 20, and lest say the thin clients cost $150. So my school would save $8400 by using thin clients, even if they do slow down performance, otherwise they would be paying $12,000.

Are they like nettops? But with better specs?

Because i found this one a while ago called the Linutop, quite good and only uses 8W.

No; they're different. These slim clients usually use an ultra-low power processor and an impeded version of Windows or another OS. You start logging into the slim client and you get a connection to the server, and everything you do is actually taking place on that server.

They would be pretty useless in a home environment unless your willing to spend a lot on the server end, and your not going to notice any real benefits.

This is true. And if I wanted to spend lord knows how much on a server, I'd get an XServe, which a thin client wouldn't support. Anyway, I wouldn't want one for productivity, just to check it out. I like to be familiar with technology, it's going to be my line of work.

Its good to use servers at schools so not everyone needs a memory-stick
But direct connection to a server is strange
My old school used Dells, and they had a harddrive and also connected to a My Documents server, where only My Documents were on the server.

My school uses Dell also (and Macs for some vocational classes such as photography and tv production), but these thin clients are new, and must be for observation purposes. At my school, everyone has their own username and password, as well as their own hard drive (500MB per student). This is the first year we've had that, before, there was one account everybody knew the login info for. They must have brought in the thin clients so it would be easier to monitor things.

We also have usernames, and i think a server too, not sure, they never tell about the IT specifications..
Notthat they would either..
For security reasons..

My school is the same. They get really awkward and dismissive when I bring up the network. I have to find out everything on my own. I did, however, get a teacher to crack once, she gave out the valuable information that the school had a working wireless network. Not the smartest on her part.

Our school has 2 open networks (We have about 30 donated laptops that different classes you when needed), and 3 closed for staff. My psp is currently blocked from the main wings open wireless
They have a pretty imnpressive weighted phrase filter too, blocking all kinds of google stuff (eg proxy). One day I'm going to bring a laptop after school and see what I can see

Anyway, I wouldn't recommend one for "checking out." They really aren't practical in most situations, so just get familiar with it when the teacher isn't looking

EDIT: smiley every line, I disgust myself