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Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scotsman who wrote (9797)	5/12/1998 1:02:00 AM
From: cAPSLOCK	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

A thin client is a machine that runs it's software on a server. Ideally it would be like a terminal, but with a modern Graphical User Interface (GUI). In other words you would turn on your 'computer' and when you ran your word processor it would actually be running on a central computer, and sending you screen updates, as you send it input data. This kind of computer does not need to be very sophisticated. WebTV is sort of like a thin client. Imagine that with the ability to run any sort of application you like (for the most part). A thin client needs little if any hardware resources. ie hard disk, memory etc. It would be suitable for the majority of computer uses. A fat client (thick you called it :) is what I would bet you are using to access this website. It is the standard PC or Mac or Ultra or whatever. Unlike the thin client it must have significant storage space (hard drive), and memory since it must store and run all of it's software itself. These computers will always exist since there are some uses that they still would do most efficiently. For example, I own a computer I use to record digital multi-track audio. Like 32 tracks playing or recording at once. There is no thin client that could handle this sort of use right now. Network bandwidth would be the main issue. Fat vs Thin computers can be though of like a car vs. mass transit, without the convenience factor in the car's favor. If it were just as convenient to catch the bus (ie there was always a bus waiting at your door ready to go exactly where you wanted it to), I imagine many many more people would ride the bus. Cheaper (less parts), easier (less setup/installation), faster (more power in the big server). Of course there are those who think the thin client idea is silly... Hope this helps. cAPSLOCK