While largely replaced by VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure), some legacy thin clients boot entirely across the network. The kernel and initial RAM disk are loaded via TFTP, and then the system mounts an NFS or iSCSI drive for the OS.

Setting up a TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) server is a common task for backing up network device configurations (like Cisco switches) or for network booting (PXE). Because TFTP has no built-in security, it is generally used only on trusted local networks.