North Carolina university does the virtual computer lab thing

I know I've been going on about this for years but North Carolina University in the States has started providing virtual computer labs. The interesting thing, which differs from my simpler view that we use these technologies to allow students access to a range of standard resources, is that they seem to be using some of the ability to clone a desktop inherent in citrix and Sun's SGD, and then stream applications onto the desktop to allow students access to these rarely used, but never play nice apps that are such a pain to add to the standard image.

Certainly one of the major problems with student computer labs is the size of the image and the sheer number of apps, and of course the more apps you have the more likely that they won't play nice.

Previously I'd been thinking along the lines of using VMWare's ACE to distribute pre rolled environments but this coupling of Softricity like application streaming and a thin client based presentation technology makes a great deal of sense ...