In my mind there are limits to the usefulness of a very thin client.
Thin client devices depending upon on-line applications and on-line storage to do work and require constant connectivity.
Smart software from companies like Citrix has helped make it cheaper to maintain a thin client network.
NetDisplay uses the Windows CE operating system, but enables full Windows NT workspace functions on a thin client.
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Remember, for IT we only see it as a thin client, nothing more, and we will concern ourselves with nothing more.
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And IBM, to take one example, has seen 40% year-to-year growth in sales of its thin client, called the Network Station.
This will be a benefit to tablet and other thin client devices that depend upon access to inexpensive on-line services, including storage.
Ubuntu uniquely gives handset OEMs and mobile operators the ability to converge phone, PC and thin client into a single enterprise superphone.
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The device also allows business users to instantly turn a display into a flexible, securely managed, communications-enabled thin client for work, demos or presentations.
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Tad Bodeman, HP's director of thin client marketing, argues that they're smaller, less expensive, more efficient and easier to manage than the typical desktop.
By the company's count, a single combined thin client and blade server uses 44 watts of energy compared with an energy-chewing desktop PC's 80 watts.
Sun's new device, which its makers call the "ultimate thin client, " could pose a threat to IBM's business and add more zip to Sun's revenues.
Thus affordable flash-based mobile devices will have limited storage capacity and are most useful for a use and delete or on-line access thin client use models.
At the same time thin client mobile devices such as tablet computers and smart phones are all the rage and are impacting sales of notebook computers.
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We use Windows Terminal Server as a thin client to operate our three main software applications: Microsoft Office, QuickBooks and GoldMine, a customer relationship management program.
Hewlett-Packard on Thursday plans to release a set of "thin client" computers that are designed to function as lightweight terminals for accessing computing systems hosted on servers.
But HP has realized it must cater to a shifting market or lose out to small thin client vendors such Wyse and iGel, says IDC analyst Bob O'Donnell.
Thin client (lower storage capacity and processing power) products such as smart phones and tablets would greatly benefit from the larger storage capacity that 20 nm NAND flash will provide.
The big idea, just like with any sort of thin client computer, is that the tablet connects back to a server where all the heavy lifting is done and all sensitive data is stored.
"An Ubuntu tablet is a secure thin client that can be managed with the same tools as any Ubuntu server or desktop, " said Stephane Verdy, who leads enterprise desktop and thin client products at Canonical.
Even with the growth of thin client mobile devices such as tablet computers and smart phones and the use of content only borrowed from the web rather than copied our total storage requirements are growing.
In addition, the data delivery systems (in the internet cloud) that serve the thin client model would also benefit with a tier of fast flash memory for rapid playout of content to the thin clients.
Hewlett-Packard (nyse: HPQ - news - people ) on Thursday plans to release a set of "thin client" computers that are designed to function as lightweight terminals for accessing computing systems hosted on servers.
But with its new thin client offerings--the first products to come out of its acquisition of hardware firm Neoware last year--HP is hoping to tap into a growing trend sparked by software offerings from companies such as VMware and Microsoft: virtualization.
Today the increased processing power of mobile devices as well as more ubiquitous network connectivity and the ability of data centers to provide (almost) always available storage capacity and applications, are causing a return to thin client computers accessing larger shared processing and storage resources.
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But with its new thin client offerings--the first products to come out of its acquisition of hardware firm Neoware last year--HP is hoping to tap into a growing trend sparked by software offerings from companies such as VMware (nyse: VMW - news - people ) and Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ): virtualization.
Putting the bulk of computing and storage in the data center has other perks for IT management: It creates a centralized location for software upgrades across an entire organization and puts a layer of network security between users and sensitive data--a lost thin client laptop, for instance, doesn't contain private information, and so doesn't pose a threat of causing a data breach.
Executives with Philips Electronics outlined strategy and gave advance demonstrations of new and upcoming peripherals, including a home networking system for consumers and thin-client products aimed at corporate users.
CNN: Is anyone listening to Bill Gates' theory on the PC's future?
To support this business, HP has for a long time supplied thin clients of various sorts, having acquired a thin-client business years ago along with the purchase of Compaq.
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