In response to Lawrence
Dietz' aricle
http://www.it-analysis.com/business/content.php?cid=9813
---------------------------------
Thin Client Architecture in The Post
Microsoft Workplace
---------------------------------
I think that Mr. Dietz has hit the
nail
squarely on the head. As Mac
integrates more Unix features into its OS and Microsoft repeatedly
shoots itself in the foot with more resource-intensive and downright
unreliable and readily hackable and generally troublesome versions of
Windows, while Unix (specifically Linux) support grows universally,
Sun's Solaris OR Linux-based 'thin client' approach is a concept whose
time has come (again).
This is not a new concept, but the timing is the thing. It was a good
idea ten years ago, but that was when Microsoft's promises were
trusted. Repeated failures and escalating costs (not to mention the bad
press of their legal battles) have eroded that trust internationally.
European governments shun Microsoft. Now the international and domestic
corporate markets are ready to listen.
While the per-work-station cost of maintaining PC's has grown, the
efficiency of the network has grown as well. Bluetooth and other
wireless technologies make integration of everything from the work
station to the PDA to the cell phone not only practical, but
increasingly more efficient and totally user-friendly.
"Walk in, log on and go to work."
With the integration of Java, Javascript and Flex/Flash technologies
into the common web browser, that 'browser' is no longer simply a means
of interpreting html-encoded pages. It IS the workspace.
Supporting one 'desktop' application - the 'browser', eliminates 90% of
the IT support requirements of the current PC-based Windows network
environment.
The hardware cost savings alone make this appealing to the corporate IT
analyst. When you centralize the applications software *source* to a
network server, yet let it run independently in a local workstation,
software upgrades are not only easier to supervise and maintain, but
the hardware requirements are eased as well.
We are not talking about a return to the 1970's client-server
relationship, where all of the processing relied upon a monster server
connected via miles of cable and workstations were 'dumb terminals'. We
will be seeing 'thin clients' - although they are not weak clients.
And, we are not looking forward to more of the MS brand of peer-to-peer
networking. After ten years of universal acceptance and very hard use,
the technologies which support and have enhanced the capabilities of
this new client-server relationship - The Internet - and have made 'to
google' a verb, have proven themselves not only to the IT community,
but to the general public as well.
And, one last point. At a time when there is a major world-wide
initiative to produce and put in place millions of "One hundred dollar"
(well, actually $200) portable computers into the hands of children
around the world, and when cellular technology is the new
telecommunications choice for the entire world - including the rapidly
integrating 'third world', the *concept* of universal connectivity is
no longer science fiction. It is today's fact.
Yes. I think that Sun's new initiative will strongly erode Microsoft's
tenuous hold on the work place and that will be a good thing for
everyone except for those soon-ready-to-retire millionaire Microsoft
executives and the foolish IT people who bought into the MS song and
dance and learned how to push buttons like Pavlov's dogs, but missed
out on gaining a firm foundation and understanding of how computing and
networking really works as the technologies evolve and make our lives
better.
Alan Runfeldt
No Deadlines Networks
10/8/2007
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