____/ Mark Kent on Tuesday 29 April 2008 15:45 : \____
> JEDIDIAH <jedi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>> On 2008-04-25, Mark Kent <mark.kent@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>>>> Thin-Clients Revisited
>>>>
>>>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>>>| The death of the PC is predicted once again. Of course I will be wrong
>>>>| like all the others before me. Personal Computing is so seductive that it
>>>>| will morph into ultra-cheap low-powered devices that hybridise the web
>>>>| thin-client with the personal device. Even Dell are aiming to release a
>>>>| sub $100 Linux (Ubuntu?) notebook. What I can say, however, is that the
>>>>| day of the big beige/black box is stone dead maybe it will take a major
>>>>| operating system vendor with it.
>>>> `----
>>>>
>>>> http://www.siriusit.co.uk/myblog/thin-clients-revisited.html
>>>>
>>>
>>> I agree entirely... the desktop is very very dead, long live the
>>> appliance and the mobile device.
>>
>> 4 of the 5 desktop machines in this house are used as appliances.
>>
>
> This is becoming pretty-much a norm, now. The "desktop" PC thing was
> built on the idea that one machine could do everything. This was based
> on the 1970s viewpoint that the computer was an uncommitted tool which
> only required software in order to "purpose" the tool. A fine thought,
> in many respects, but I suspect most people didn't really consider just
> how many uses people would put a PC to. Microsoft shot themselves in
> both feet by failing maintain an operating system and software which
> would easily and seemlessly run an arbitrary combination of peripherals
> in a reliable fashion. Once a point had been reached where most people
> regarded installing software as "dangerous" the web as "risky" for
> surfing, that some sites should be avoided, that some combinations of
> software just didn't work, and that the whole thing had to be rebuilt
> anyway every few months, it was game over.
>
> By leaving behind millions of machines unable to run the "latest
> software", but perfectly capable of doing the tasks most people actually
> need, given the right operating system and applications; Linux was
> perfectly timed to exploit the huge available pool of older machines,
> and created, in the process, the "appliance" usage of IBM PCs. A whole
> generation of print servers, web servers, gaming servers and more have
> graced offices and the houses of the technically aware for some time.
> Appliances are not remotely new, rather, it's that the mainstream is
> discovering the joys of "repurposed" hardware.
Just watch what IBM does with the mainframes it does not bury. It puts Linux on
them.
--
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | Play Othello: http://othellomaster.com
http://Schestowitz.com | RHAT GNU/Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
run-level 2 2008-04-15 01:48 last=
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