Future of Business PC : Thin Client

[gxsaurav]

Well, they are available from a long time already but they have never been popular at all.

I was reading this article in Anandtech & was thinking (http://www.anandtech.com/IT/showdoc.aspx?i=3041&p=2), in the scenario we work in India, such PCs can really mean a lot of help to the Small & Medium business houses all over. Low IT infrastructure cost, low maintainence cost & what not.

I hope you all know about Thin clients. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_client) They are basically computer without a hard disk or any other moving part. They just "Show" stuff on the monitor screen, thats it. The processing is done at the main server or server blade, the work you do is also saved on the central server, & you just work on them.
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/it/2007/killing-business-pc/cci.jpg

Thin Client means an office can have just one license of the OS per server or Blade, like Windows Terminal Server or Some Linux offering about which I have to no idea or....well Mac has no such offering. The Clients will run "instance" of the OS on which a user or employee will work on his application or the software application.

Now, these are not high end softwares, but more like low end, sepcific software like some companies accounting software or maybe some Office application or something like that. Oh! they are also developer friendly as you can code & code on these thin clients, & the code will be saved on the blade server, & when u compile, the blade server will compile & "show" you the output or result on the thin client u r using.

There are many possibilites, but the biggest benefit I see is security & electricity reduction.

[blackpearl]

Welcome back saurav!! :)

[sakumar79]

Will running the same applications on two or more thin clients require multiple licences?

Arun

[gxsaurav]

Thanx Black pearl

@ Arun

No, it should not. You have installed it once, & running multiple Windows of Office Word (Example) does not violates the license of MS office (Example). But usually companies use there own custom made software for there work which means no such licensing restrictions.

Thin Client is not for everywhere but for places like banks or hospitals, it is very good option. Like in India, SBI & PnB uses an application called "Finnacle" which is a web based application. That can benefit a lot from thin client as I pity them for running Windows 2000 on Pentium D :D

[Charan]

I had seen a article somewhere Either on the news or in a Mag ( may be India Today ), Some NGO had setup a server in a small town and had given thin clinets to used for a nominal monthly fee. They could use educational material and also Internet. This was implemented in india.

[gxsaurav]

Yeah, thats one seriously good use in rural areas as one server can be setup by govermant or Pirvate NGO, & thin clients can be used to give info about crops etc

[Charan]

If im not wrong I think I saw the machice was connected to a TV. So imagine a monthly usage fee for the box for say Rs. 100 - 150, every child in every household can have a computer. I also remember AMD had plans to release this PC
http://i.n.com.com/i/ne/p/2004/102204_amd.jpg

If this one comes with Video Out then it will be a real hit in rural areas.

[sauravktr]

If im not wrong I think I saw the machice was connected to a TV. So imagine a monthly usage fee for the box for say Rs. 100 - 150, every child in every household can have a computer. I also remember AMD had plans to release this PC
http://i.n.com.com/i/ne/p/2004/102204_amd.jpg

If this one comes with Video Out then it will be a real hit in rural areas.

Good News Yaar!!!

[sakumar79]

That pic posted above is for AMD's PIC (Personal Internet Communicator) and is not a thin client (has its own proccy, RAM, hdd, etc)... AFAIK, It was released a while back but did not take off that well... Dont know if it was ever released in India. More info at http://50x15.amd.com/en-us/

EDIT: As per specs, video output is available.
EDIT #2: In 2004, apparently AMD and VSNL teamed up to deliver PICs in India, but I dont think it took off - Source: http://www.amdboard.com/pic.html

Arun

[gxsaurav]

Most of the thin clients have there own CPU, RAM & Video card. HD is not required but some sort of temporary HD like 1 GB flash memory is required.

Suppose we use it in a Cyber cafe environment. I don't know what will be the configuration of the blade, but thin clients, something like an AMD Sempron 1 GHz ULV with 512 MB RAM & stripped down Radeon Xpress 1250 graphics is enough or Intel Core 2 Duo ULV 800 MHz with 512 MB RAM & stripped down GMA X300. 1 GB Flash based storage also doesn't cost much.

Storage can stay at the central server while the nodes can use pen drives if customers want to take what they downloaded or worked upon.

The system can run either Windows Terminal server or Citrix Metaframe. or some sort of Linux if Linux provides this functionality. Business should use such things, cos this is very secure & save electricity.

@ Arun

PIC was a good initiative, but was not marketed well & it was available only through goverment. Thats what they did wrong.

[Charan]

That pic posted above is for AMD's PIC (Personal Internet Communicator) and is not a thin client (has its own proccy, RAM, hdd, etc)... AFAIK, It was released a while back but did not take off that well... Dont know if it was ever released in India. More info at http://50x15.amd.com/en-us/

EDIT: As per specs, video output is available.
EDIT #2: In 2004, apparently AMD and VSNL teamed up to deliver PICs in India, but I dont think it took off - Source: http://www.amdboard.com/pic.html

Arun

Yes I know that It was not a thin client. But it was a start to build low cost PC. I hope Both major companies Intel and AMD take a serious look into thin client market.

[ax3]

thin client, thats a great thing ............

[sauravktr]

how much it cost in INDIA??? & where can i get it????

[gxsaurav]

Don't know about the cost. Ask the nearest HP or IBM dealer. They can give u info about cost & installation

[mediator]

Well, AFAIK, thats what the std practise was in the days of UNIX where the people used to purchase a shell account from ISP, dial to it to get access and do all the neccessary task. DeJavu....And yes its a nice practise specially when u have high speed networks and powerful backend servers!!

[teknoPhobia]

Place where I am staying currently has thin clients in the rooms, they suck, we're all using our lappys instead :P

[gxsaurav]

^^^^ what r u using the thin clients for?

[Charan]

@technoPhobia If the terminal server and network backbone is not up to the mark then you will get very low performance. BTW whats the config of the server and how many clients are in the network? and what kind of applications do you run on the client?