Thin Client

• Thin Client

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Linux adoption - Web thin clients

1 In 2011, Google introduced the Chromebook, a web thin client running the Linux-based Chrome OS, with the ability to

use web applications and remote desktop in to other computers running Windows, Mac

OS X, a traditional Linux distribution or Chrome OS, using Chrome Remote Desktop.

In 2012 Google and Samsung introduced the first version of the Chromebox, a small-

form-factor desktop equivalent to the Chromebook.


Thin client

1 A thin client (sometimes also called a lean or slim client) is a computer or a computer program which depends heavily on some

other computer (its server) to fulfill its computational roles. This is different from the

traditional fat client, which is a computer designed to take on these roles by itself. The

specific roles assumed by the server may vary, from providing data persistence (for

example, for diskless nodes) to actual information processing on the client's behalf.


Thin client

1 Thin clients occur as components of a broader computer infrastructure, where many clients share their computations

with the same server. As such, thin client infrastructures can be viewed as

providing some computing service via several user interfaces. This is desirable in contexts where individual fat clients have much more functionality or power

than the infrastructure requires.


Thin client

1 The most common type of modern thin client is a low-end computer terminal which only provides a

graphical user interface - or more recently, in some cases, a web

browser - to the end user.


Thin client

1 By mid-2013, basic Chromebooks, which are web thin clients, had

become relatively popular among US buyers seeking to buy an affordable laptop, due to their sub-$300 price,

high security (due to the secure design of their browser-based

Operating System, Chrome OS, and the impossibility of compromising

them via Windows or Mac malware) and simplicity.


Thin client - History

1 Typically, X software is not made available on non-X-based thin clients, although no technical reason for this

exclusion would prevent it.



1 The term thin client was coined in 1993 by Tim Negris, VP of Server Marketing at

Oracle Corp., while working with company founder Larry Ellison on the launch of

Oracle 7. At the time, Oracle wished to differentiate their server oriented software from Microsoft's desktop oriented products. Ellison subsequently popularized Negris's

buzzword with frequent use in his speeches and interviews about Oracle products.



1 The term "thin client" also conveys better what was then viewed as the fundamental difference: thin clients can be designed with less expensive

hardware, because they have reduced computational workloads.



1 In 2011 Google introduced its Chromebook, a web thin client



1 In 2012, Google and Samsung introduced the first Chromebox, a

desktop equivalent of the Chromebook, with a small form

factor, similar to other thin clients.



1 However, while there was now little size difference, thin clients retained

some key advantages over these competitors, such as not needing a

local drive.


Thin client - Cheap client hardware

1 Thin clients also are generally very low power and might not even

require cooling fans, but the servers are higher power and almost always

require an environmentally controlled air conditioned server room.


Thin client - Client simplicity

1 Since thin clients are cheap, they offer a low risk of theft in general, and are easy to replace if stolen or

broken


Thin client - Client simplicity

1 Modern thin clients attempt to address this limitation via port mapping or USB redirection

software


Thin client - Slow bitmapped/animated graphics

1 Thin clients tend to be optimized for use with simple lines, curves, and

text, which can be rapidly drawn by the client using predefined stored

procedures and cached bitmap data. In this regard, thin clients work well for basic office applications such as spreadsheets, word processing, data

entry, and so forth.



1 Graphics rich 3D games can be completely unusable on a thin client

unless the updated screen area is kept very small or the overall screen resolution is very low, to reduce the amount of data sent to the client.



1 In an attempt to reduce network bandwidth, the server may try to compress high detail

bitmaps on the fly before sending the data to the client, but this adds latency to the client-server communications, and may reduce user

interface responsiveness. Many thin clients offer options to turn off various graphics rich

user interface effects in order to increase performance, such as not showing the

contents of a window while dragging or not displaying a desktop background.


Thin client - Repurposing a PC as a thin client

1 The following options allow a PC to be used as a thin client - in some

cases, even if it has no working hard drive:


Thin client - Ultra-thin client, Zero client, or Clientless

1 Some thin clients, such as the Sun Ray, use a simpler protocol for

communicating display updates, and these are sometimes called ultra-thin

clients or a zero clients,


Thin client - RTE client

1 It contains all and only the code needed to accomplish its specific task, thus it is more than a zero client but less than a typical thin

client computer


Thin client - Web thin client

1 Web thin clients only provide a web browser, and rely on web

applications to provide general-purpose computing functionality



1 Examples of web thin clients include Chromebooks and Chromeboxes

(which run Chrome OS) and phones running Firefox OS.



1 Chromebooks and Chromeboxes also have the capability of remote desktop using the free

Chrome Remote Desktop browser extension, meaning that as well as a web thin client,

they can also be used as an ultra-thin client (see above) to access PC or Mac applications which do not run on the Chromebook directly. Indeed, they can be used as a web thin client and an ultra-thin-client simultaneously, with the user switching between web browser and PC or Mac application windows with a click.



1 Web thin clients are similar to RTE clients, but unlike first-generation

RTE clients the Operating System is typically updatable. Chrome OS, for

example, automatically updates itself if its update servers (which are

hosted by Google) are not blocked by a firewall - while still being tamper-resistant due to its use of Trusted

Computing technologies.https://store.theartofservice.com/the-thin-client-toolkit.html

Thin client - Applications as thin clients

1 The notion of a thin client extends indirectly to any client–server

architecture, in which case, a thin client application is simply one which relies on its server to process most or all of its business logic. This idiom is

relatively common for computer security reasons. A client obviously

cannot be trusted with the logic that determines how trustworthy they

are, because an adversary can circumvent that logic.


Thin clients

1 A 'thin client' (sometimes also called a 'lean', 'zero' or 'slim client') is a computer or a computer program

that depends heavily on some other computer (its server) to fulfill its

computational roles. This is different from the traditional fat client, which is a computer designed to take on these roles by itself. The specific roles assumed by the server may

vary, from providing data persistence (for example, for diskless nodes) to

actual information processing on the client's behalf.


Thin clients - History

1 Typically, X software is not made available on non-X-based thin clients, although no technical reason for this

exclusion would prevent it.



1 The term thin client was coined in 1993 by Tim Negris, VP of Server Marketing at Oracle Corp., while

working with company founder Larry Ellison on the launch of Oracle database|Oracle 7. At the time,

Oracle wished to differentiate their server oriented software from Microsoft's desktop oriented

products. Ellison subsequently popularized Negris's buzzword with frequent use in his speeches and interviews about Oracle products.



1 The term thin client also conveys better what was then viewed as the fundamental difference: thin clients can be designed with less expensive

hardware, because they have reduced computational workloads.



1 However, while there was now little size difference, thin clients retained

some key advantages over these competitors, such as not needing a

local drive.


Thin clients - Cheap client hardware

1 Thin clients also generally use very low power and might not even

require cooling fans, but the servers consume high power and almost

always require an environmentally controlled air conditioned server

room.


Thin clients - Ultra-thin client, Zero client, or Clientless

1 Some thin clients, such as the Sun Ray, use a simpler protocol for

communicating display updates, and these are sometimes called 'ultra-

thin clients' or a 'zero clients',.[http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaign

s/thin-client-solutions/zero-clients.html t310 Zero Client] Their

tiny operating systems merely initialize the network, begin the

networking protocol, handle display of the server's output, and transmit

user input events


Thin clients - RTE client

1 It contains all and only the code needed to accomplish its specific task, thus it is more than a zero client but less than a typical thin

client computer


Thin clients - Web thin client

1 Web thin clients only provide a web browser, and rely on web

applications to provide general-purpose computing functionality



1 Chromebooks and Chromeboxes also have the capability of remote

desktop using the free Chrome Remote Desktop browser extension,

which means, other than being a web thin client, they can also be used as an ultra-thin client (see above) to access PC or Mac applications that

do not run on the Chromebook directly. Indeed, they can be used as a web thin client and an ultra-thin-client simultaneously, with the user switching between web browser and PC or Mac application windows with a

click.



1 Web thin clients are similar to RTE clients, but unlike first-generation

RTE clients the Operating System can typically be updated. Chrome OS, for example, automatically updates itself

if its update servers (which are hosted by Google) are not blocked by a firewall - while still being tamper-resistant due to its use of Trusted

Computing technologies.https://store.theartofservice.com/the-thin-client-toolkit.html

Thin clients - Applications as thin clients

1 The notion of a thin client extends indirectly to any client–server architecture, in which

case, a thin client application software|application is simply one which relies on its server to process most or all of its business logic. This idiom is relatively common for

computer security reasons. A client obviously cannot be trusted with the logic that

determines how trustworthy they are, because an adversary (cryptography)|adversary can circumvent that logic.


Caldera (company) - Caldera, Caldera Systems and Caldera Thin Clients

1 On 2 September 1998, Caldera, Inc. announced the creation of two Utah-based

wholly owned subsidiaries, Caldera Systems, Inc. and Caldera Thin Clients, Inc.,

in order to split up tasks and directions.Caldera. Caldera creates two

owned subsidiaries. Press-release, 2 September 1998, PR-Newswire

([http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=15948 Caldera Creates Owned

Subsidiaries]).https://store.theartofservice.com/the-thin-client-toolkit.html

Caldera (company) - Caldera UK, Caldera Thin Clients, Lineo, and Embedix

1 formerly known as Caldera Thin Clients,

Inc.


Computer workstation - Thin clients and X terminals

1 This approach was actually first attempted as a replacement for PCs in office

productivity applications, with the 3Station by 3Com as an early example; in the 1990s, X terminals filled a similar role for technical computing. Sun has also introduced thin clients, most notably its Sun Ray product

line. However, traditional workstations and PCs continue to drop in price, which tends to

undercut the market for products of this type.


Diskless node - Comparison with thin clients

1 Moreover, thin client computers are increasing in power to the point

where they are becoming suitable as fully-fledged diskless workstations for

some applications.


Diskless node - Comparison with thin clients

1 Both thin client and diskless node architectures employ diskless clients

which have advantages over fat clients (see above), but differ with

regard to the location of processing.


Diskless node - Advantages of diskless nodes over thin clients

1 When the central server is busy and slow, both kinds of clients will be affected, but thin clients will be

slowed down completely, whereas diskless nodes will only be slowed down when accessing data on the

server.



1 *'Better multimedia performance'. Diskless nodes have advantages over

thin clients in multimedia-rich applications that would be bandwidth intensive if fully served. For example,

diskless nodes are well suited for video gaming.



1 a USB device can be physically attached to a thin client, the thin client software might not support

peripherals beyond the basic input and output devices - for example, it

may not be compatible with graphics tablets, digital cameras or Image

scanner|scanners.


Diskless node - Advantages of thin clients over diskless nodes

1 Taking all these factors into account, thin clients may bring the most substantial savings, as only the

servers are likely to be substantially gold-plated and/or future-proofed in

the thin client model.



1 Thin client networks may require significantly more powerful servers in the future, whereas a diskless nodes network may in future need a server upgrade, a client upgrade, or both.



1 In many typical application scenarios, both total bandwidth

consumption and burst consumption would be expected to be less for an

efficient thin client, than for a diskless node.


Boot image control - Thin client strategies

1 Organizations that do not closely track, control and set common

standards for, acquisition of new computer hardware, typically can only practice a thin client strategy.


Boot image control - Thin client strategies

1 * whether the capabilities of a full operating system are required, or just those of a thin

client


Construction field computing - Thin client

1 A thin client refers to a device that acts as a computer terminal|terminal

or interface with a server or other device. Sometimes called dumb

terminal, these devices do not have sufficient computing capacity or data

storage capacity of process information, but only allow the user

to access the software and data needed by them. Some advantages

of this type of system are:https://store.theartofservice.com/the-thin-client-toolkit.html


1 *Lower software and hardware costs since only minimal computing

capacity is needed on the thin client device and separate software for

each unit is not required.



1 *Thin client device is not useful as a stand-alone so that it is not

attractive to Fence (criminal)|fencers and thus a less likely target of theft. (Thieves generally know which items are worth stealing.) Stolen devices are unlikely to be usable to non-authorized personnel. Therefore,

proprietary information is protected.


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Thin Client