Thin Clients

[buster]

I want Steve Jobs to build wireless, stateless thin clients (ala SUN) with 17" LCDs run them with his servers and a productivity suite and sell them for $300/seat. He will take over the world of small business (<200 employee companies) and then the rest of the universe. It would be best if he started on this now! :| Steve are you listening to me?

[Luca]

Steve are you listening to me?
No.





:lol: I just had to!

[dfiler]

Is that you Larry?

Give it up Mr. Ellison. ;)
Been there, tried that.

[sCreeD]

Ironically, Larry is busy making Oracle fat and bloated with Peoplesoft, thus giving the advantage to IBM and SAP.

Screed

[oldmacfan]

Funny thing about this thread and today.

I just saw my first Thin Client in years, and it is over twice the size of the new Mac. The college I work for has been on a Citrix pilot for 6 months in two of our labs and just today we got one Thin client to start the second round of testing. As a staff member on a Mac, I use Citrix to connect to my PC profile desktop and to individual applications. Only problem is the Thin client is still $200-$300 and if we have a network outage (which is not uncommon with our IT Dept.) we have worthless boxes on the table that can do nothing.

[JayReding]

Thin clients are a nightmare from a usability standpoint. When you introduce network lag into your UI, it ruins the experience. I don't see Apple pursuing the thin client market any time soon.

[buster]

Actually network lag is not a problem with the new Sun Microsystems networks I have been using. The technology is there. What we could use is Apple's genius at making things easy to use. Most office workers just need basic productivity software not graphic intensive apps. Hospitals would love them. Come on..open your mind!

[Boondoggle]

I actually have been thinking that the Mini is something of a thin-client in sheeps clothing. I could see IBM or others using Minis in some applications. I would not be surprised to see some interesting developments like that in the future. Just because IBM gave up the PC business doesn't mean they want to give up the desktop.

bd

[HOM]

Um, everyone knows that the Mac has had 'thin client' abilities for some time now right? I mean, I'm not the only one that remembers NetBoot (http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/netboot.html)?

[Boondoggle]

Yeah, we know. But the Mini meets or at least gets close enough in price to make it somewhat probable instead of just possible.

[dfiler]

The advantage of a thin client is that it is supposed to be lower cost and simplified administration of both hardware and software.

The mini is already a full blown computer and costs as much as a full blown computer. Considering this, I don't think businesses will completely rework their infrastructure just for a small mac that still costs more than a PC or thin client.

The mini has it's place... but a thin client?
Perhaps. But only without the hard disk and optical drive.

[buster]

Clearly I am trying to stir the pot here. But I am convinced thin clients and thick pipes are the future of (most) business computing. Workstations of course have their place for high end users but when I look at all the 100s PCs in my work place crammed with MS software that is 99% underutilized I feel there must be a better way.