"...If I could just have a small device that acts as a real dumb terminal with some processing power and minimal storage, I'd be happy..."
The product you talk of exists. You are describing the SunRay ULTRA thin client. It weighs 0.4kg and uses 4 Watt. Size of a VHS cassette. It has no OS, no RAM, no CPU. Everything is done on the server. No processing is done on the SunRay ultra thin client, no software is run on the SunRay ultra thin client (hence the name "ultra thin" instead of thin client). It can not be upgraded. Instead you upgrade the server with more RAM or CPU. SunRay is similar to a VNC connection. They are routinely used over internet to servers in other countries. It needs 50KB/sec bandwidth. Perfect for development, but bad for streaming video because bitmap pictures are streamed to the SunRay client.
The server software can be run on Linux or Solaris. Free to download and try. Buy an old SunRay client on Ebay for 40USD and try it. Or, instead you can use the SunRay soft client, which is a program that emulates a SunRay client (similar to VNC). All software is downloadable for free from Oracle.
One server cpu core can drive 5 heavy office users, but you need RAM to each user. If you have one 8 core cpu, it would suffice to 40 heavy office users.
SunRay differs from ordinary thin clients, which typically have 256MB RAM and 1GHz CPU and an embedded OS (WindowsCE, Linux) which you must patch and upgrade. In effect, a thin client is a very very weak PC that is useless for heavy compiling. But SunRay does everything on the server, it has no CPU of it's own that runs software (it only displays bitmaps that the server are sending to the client).
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"...If I could just have a small device that acts as a real dumb terminal with some processing power and minimal storage, I'd be happy..." The product you talk of exists. You are describing the SunRay ULTRA thin client. It weighs 0.4kg and uses 4 Watt. Size of a VHS cassette. It has no OS, no RAM, no CPU. Everything is done on the server. No processing is done on the SunRay ultra thin client, no software is run on the SunRay ultra thin client (hence the name "ultra thin" instead of thin client). It can not be upgraded. Instead you upgrade the server with more RAM or CPU. SunRay is similar to a VNC connection. They are routinely used over internet to servers in other countries. It needs 50KB/sec bandwidth. Perfect for development, but bad for streaming video because bitmap pictures are streamed to the SunRay client. The server software can be run on Linux or Solaris. Free to download and try. Buy an old SunRay client on Ebay for 40USD and try it. Or, instead you can use the SunRay soft client, which is a program that emulates a SunRay client (similar to VNC). All software is downloadable for free from Oracle. One server cpu core can drive 5 heavy office users, but you need RAM to each user. If you have one 8 core cpu, it would suffice to 40 heavy office users. SunRay differs from ordinary thin clients, which typically have 256MB RAM and 1GHz CPU and an embedded OS (WindowsCE, Linux) which you must patch and upgrade. In effect, a thin client is a very very weak PC that is useless for heavy compiling. But SunRay does everything on the server, it has no CPU of it's own that runs software (it only displays bitmaps that the server are sending to the client).