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New York Times Says Thin Clients Are Making a Comeback
One of the seemingly eternal questions in managing personal computers within organizations is whether to centralize computing power (making it easy to upgrade or secure The One True Computer, and its data), or push the power out toward the edges, where an individual user isn't crippled because a server at the other side of the network is down, or if the network itself is unreliable. Despite the ever-increasing power of personal computers, the New York Times reports that the concept of making individual users' screens portals (smart ones) to bigger iron elsewhere on the network is making a comeback.
Worked for a place that effectively tried to thin-client us (although they didn't call it that). It was horrible. It was one of the main reasons I left. Most of the guys who did the work and had earned the place stellar reputation (and earned well into six figures) did as well. Most of the team left in a 3 month period, and their reputation (and revenue) cratered. Even if they had been able to replace the team (they tried, failed) I doubt the system cost saving would have covered half the recruitment cost. Still, I guess they saved a couple of hundred per seat on hardware and support costs! Guess what guys - I studied hard for my quals, my market value is starting to get pretty good with experience, and I know how to do my job. I do it the way that works best for me, and I set up my tools to work for me. If some pimply IT support guy thinks they know better than me what is needed to do my job, they are welcome to try and do it. If they can't, they should just piss off. Their job is to give me what I need to do my job and bring in revenue, it ain't my job to work around them. I want a nice powerful machine, that is fully customisable by me for my needs. If I want non-standard software, or a bit of non-standard hardware, the correct response is (1) purchase; and (2) install - it isn't to try and standardise me on what works for someone else.