Re: Thin Clients -- MIDRANGE-L

I think Thin Clients are on their way in. The market is just beginning to
take them seriously even though they have been talked about for a long time.
Think of big companies that have 1000s of PCs to administer- lots of money
is wasted for many things like users installing non-work related software
that causes problems, etc. Thin clients address this kind of problem-
upgrades are done on the server not the client, the hardware is cheaper to
begin with, and administration costs are much lower. Not to mention more and
more applications are becoming available for thin clients. Java is becoming
the preferred language for programming them too. There are now already a
couple of Office-style packages available (Star Office, and whichever IBM
offers for its thin clients) and the idea of application serving is also
gaining momentum. The change won't happen overnight, but it is definitely
the future. It will also spread over the Internet-- instead of using things
like Hotmail, you will have java applets which are much faster, but you
still keep the emails themselves (the data) on a server somewhere else do
your data is portable and it doesn't matter which computer you use... in a
way, HTML in the browser is sort of the first popular thin client.

Luther

-----Original Message-----
From: Colin Williams <Williamsc@technocrats.co.uk>
To: 'MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com' <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Date: Monday, 27 September 1999 16:24
Subject: RE: Thin Clients


>Are you saying that Java is not going to be the magic carpet that
>everyone claims it is going to be then.
>
>I have some colleagues who are saying it is the next big thing, and that
>I need to ditch RPG, and learn Java today.
>I'm not convinced, as we've seen this kind of thing before!
>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Roger Pence [mailto:rp@rogerpence.com]
>>>> Sent: Friday, September 17, 1999 8:31 PM
>>>> To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
>>>> Subject: Re: Thin Clients
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> > I got an interesting response to my question about thin
>>>> clients.  The
>>>> > responding individual feels that thin clients are on
>>>> their way out.  His
>>>> > opinion is that they don't perform well over all and that
>>>> they are not
>>>> well
>>>> > supported.  Can anyone agree with or dispute this opinion?
>>>>
>>>> On their way out! They've never been in! But seriously...
>>>>
>>>> A lot depends on your intended uses, what you're calling thin client
>>>> computing, and how correctly you've configured the server.
>>>> You _must_ have
>>>> an appropriately configured server for the thin Windows
>>>> model. Remember, you
>>>> don't get something for nothing, and subtracting horsepower
>>>> from the desktop
>>>> means adding it somewhere else.
>>>>
>>>> There are at least three models of thin client computing, so pick a
>>>> definition before you pick a fight:
>>>>
>>>> 1. Networkstation running a browser and green screen. Great
>>>> substitute for
>>>> dumb terminal.
>>>>
>>>> 2. Networkstation running a browser, green screen and Java,
>>>> browser-delivered applications. This model didn't come true
>>>> and isn't likely
>>>> to. This month, Lotus pulled the plug on its e-Suite Java-delivered
>>>> alternative to MS Office. Java clearly isn't science
>>>> fiction anymore, but it
>>>> also won't deliver on _every_ promise it initially made.
>>>>
>>>> 3. PC attached to Terminal Server/Citrix solution. This is
>>>> a potentially
>>>> good solution, but needs _lots_ of horsepower on the
>>>> backend. And, MS
>>>> products are just barely thin-client aware. You may spend
>>>> less tweaking
>>>> desktops with this model, but expect to do so at a 10%-25%
>>>> performance hit.
>>>> Also, expect tradeoffs with application compatibility; for
>>>> example, the only
>>>> version of CA/400 that 100% (almost) supports Terminal
>>>> Server is Express.
>>>> And, remember too, that with this model, your users will
>>>> still drive you
>>>> nuts with printer problems, how do I do mail merge, I can't
>>>> get the menu bar
>>>> I had yesterday... it's all such an ugly cycle. We all
>>>> oughta open a deli.
>>>> You don't have to reboot roast beef.
>>>>
>>>> Today, with the lower buy-in of PCs and better desktop management
>>>> possibilities (such as system policies), stand-alone PCs
>>>> are quite likely to
>>>> be around for a long, long time.
>>>>
>>>> rp
>>>>
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