I have a 500 mhz linux computer (debian) in my room. It is extremely loud, so I have to shut it down at night. I am looking at a thin client to go in my room and move the 500 downstairs. Are all thin clients compatible with linux? what servers do i have to run? Where is the cheapest thin client?
Are thin clients any good?

Basically any machine with a NIC and a good chunk of RAM can be turned into a thin client, but most machines marketed as such are nothing more than stock kit just like the 500Mhz machine. Basically what you want is a low power machine with no CPU and case fan. There are a lot of ITX machines like this running on cheap Cyrix chips... you could find an old celeron on some of the first P2s came without HSFs. Really though, there's a lot of simply quiet machines out there and running a driveless box just saves you the price of a harddrive.

Cheers,

Finegan