SafeDesk Solutions, a Spokane computer-network developer, is trying to "educate" school districts across the U.S. about the potential benefits of a resurging technology.

More and more, says SafeDesk President Phil Autrey, school systems are getting the lesson.

"We'll see triple-digit growth this year, and as an organization, we saw that last year," Autrey says.

Incorporated as Class 101 Corp., SafeDesk makes what are called Linux-based thin-client products. Linux is an operating system that is an alternative to Microsoft operating systems but works with other Microsoft software products. The "thin client" technology allows all processing to take place on a server, so that desktop computers-called dummy terminals in this instance-don't need any technology beyond a network card, a simple processor for routing information, and some working memory.

Autrey declines to disclose SafeDesk's revenues or to quantify the small company's rapid sales growth, but says that through partnerships with heavy hitters like Gateway, Dell, and Novell, the Spokane company now is working with a number of school districts and a few colleges, mostly in the Midwest and on the East Coast.

Over 90 percent of its customers are in the education sector.

Autrey says thin-client technology has been around since the 1970s, but went out of vogue as personal computers became more popular. In recent years, however, improvements in computer networking and broadband Internet have enabled thin-client technology to compare more favorably with personal computers.

SafeDesk employs 14 people and subleases about 2,000 square feet of office space for its operations at 915 W. Second downtown.

Autrey says the company's current clients operate computer networks with the capability of handling between 25 and 350 simultaneous users. A school district typically can deploy more thin-client desktop computers than it has capacity for because not all users will be connected to the network at the same time, he says.

Depending on what support and consulting services clients choose, the cost of a 25-desktop network is between $6,000 and $15,000. The cost of such a network is scalable, Autrey says. That means the cost-per-desktop decreases as the number of computers increases, primarily because servers used for, say, a 30-computer network often can handle more desktops with no additional upgrade in equipment.

The school districts SafeDesk currently serves have between 500 and 5,000 students.

One customer is Mountain Grove School District, a rural district in southwestern Missouri with about 1,500 students and roughly 700 desktop computers.

Richard Nelson, technology director at Mountain Grove, says the district installed SafeDesk technology in the 100-computer network at its middle school and is planning to install the technology at the high school later this year.

The district has a lot of computers it bought in 1999 that won't run current operating systems - or that run at unacceptably slow speeds. Nelson estimates that the cost of updating the network with new personal computers would have been about $650 per desktop. With thinclient technology, he says, the district can upgrade for a third of the cost.

"As with any school district, we have limited resources," Nelson says. "When we're doing something that's keeping us up to date but is manageable, that's very valuable to us."

Since SafeDesk technology requires minimal technology in the desktop units themselves, the district can use the older desktops it already has by making slight modifications to them. Also, a nearby U.S. Air Force base donates to the school district old computers that it is swapping out for new technology, so the district has plenty of computers to convert to thin-client units.

SafeDesk manufactures desktop thinclient units that it sells to users if they don't have old computers to convert.

Nelson says thin-client technology also is easier to maintain and is harder for individual users to disturb. Since members log onto the system and have control only of their account, they can't add or remove software or do much else to disrupt the computer they're working on.

In the school setting, that's valuable, because if a computer isn't useable, that will affect a half-dozen users in a day.

Also, he says, most computer viruses are aimed at Microsoft operating systems and don't affect Linux-based systems. Consequently, at least so far, virus protection isn't much of a concern in the thin-client computer labs.

"As Linux grows in popularity, the probability of viruses will grow," Nelson says. "At this point, we see it as a moot issue."

The downside for some is that with thin-client technology, each desktop computer has the same capabilities and limitations, with little opportunity to add options for selected users, Nelson says.

Autrey says that like Mountain Grove, most of the school districts SafeDesk serves are far from Spokane. That primarily is because the company is introduced to the bulk of its clients about 75 percent, Autrey says - through partnerships with national desktop-computer makers, such as Gateway Inc., Dell Computers Inc., and other national technology companies.

In such a partnership, SafeDesk sells to a school district its thin-client technology, and Gateway, for example, sells its servers, support services, and peripheral equipment - mainly printers and monitors.

Autrey says Gateway was an early advocate of SafeDesk's products and has introduced the company to clients it otherwise might not have reached. SafeDesk and Gateway collaborate routinely to put on "boot camps" for potential clients, in which the customer is flown in and given an intensive tutorial on products from both companies.

SafeDesk is participating in 35 such event's between now and the end of April, Autrey says.

SafeDesk started in Portland in January 2000 and moved to Spokane in early 2001 with two employees, Autrey and senior account executive Mike Francisco.

Autrey and Francisco both grew up in Spokane and were friends at University High School. After college, they reconvened in Portland with the start of SafeDesk.