I'm not sure Mike. The disadvantage of the thin client model for
the home environment is the perceived lack of security and
privacy. I believe that net users, moreso than the general
population, are becoming more rabid in their desires for some
sorts of personal privacy protection, and I am no exception.
For many, buying a fat client, and storing info locally, provides a
greater sense of security than having it stored on some central
server. Besides, the cost differential is minimal, and in absolute
numbers, will decrease even more over time.
While I would never have a thin client as my primary terminal,
thinking ahead a few years, I could have on as a 2nd or 3rd,
provided the apps I accessed from those clients were optimised
to run, say on JVM, rather than on top of Win2001. Then again,
with a $400 machine running at 1GHz, with 100gigs of storage,
and 500 megs of memory, why bother.
Just an idle Sunday afternoon thought.
Carl |
