Download New Windows 7 Version, Windows Thin PC (WinTPC) in Q1, 2011

Hi there

This simply looks like another re-incarnation of "Thin Clients" or Diskless (or USELESS as we used to call them) workstations which people have been g (totally against the wishes of the USERS) trying to foist on the IT community since around 1975.

They weren't popular then and will be even less popular now -- even a small cheap netbook can run a FULL w7 version without any serious problems at all so what sort of "legacy" devices are we talking about here.

Tis type of application *might* be suited for Cloud Computing -- but implementation of that other than for basic email / banking type services is still a long way off (and might even be in "Cloud Cuckoo Land").

In any case a lot of companies are finally leeting USERS use their OWN hardware and find it's much better and cheaper to secure the NETWORK and allow users access to their own hardware.

I'm sure a user with a nice fast laptop at home won't want a dinosaur "tiny" diskless workstation to use at work. Also a lot of people take work home and / or work remotely too.

I think a lot will pass on this application as this definitely seems like "Yesterday's Technology Tomorrow" --long live Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Cheers
jimbo

I'm sure a user with a nice fast laptop at home won't want a dinosaur "tiny" diskless workstation to use at work. Also a lot of people take work home and / or work remotely too.

Agree, I work from home two days a week (today being one of them) and Windows 7 pro build 7601 SP1 works just fine, never had a problem connecting and I can do personal stuff (like be here) at the same time :)

for the cost of a thin client tho its worth investing in a small form pc, as the extra computing power is always a benefit no matter what.

in fact the acer veriton's i now use in place of the old thin clients that were installed at work years ago are cheaper than the replacement WYSE thin client units and a hell of a lot more versatile. i simply use remote apps to jump the users onto the server apps they require or mapped network drives to grab excel files etc to the local machine to edit/update etc

Graemzy said:

i think thin clients are a good idea!

the place i just finished work experience just got one in to test it out. they run win xp. every user in the building was logged onto the main server using citrix. so really most of them apart from the few that needed some extra apps on there own machine, ie. apps for doin wages, where only using there own machine to log onto the server.

there was no need for there machine at all. all apps, drivers and files are on the server.

now i have only seen a small bit about the thin clients so i cant really say much but from what i seen it looked good. for that situation anyway.

Hi there

I think this is probably a special case -- most companies that now use a lot of computing power are either issuing people with Laptops (a lot are moving totally away from the "fixed" Workstation type of idea) or allowing people access to their Network using peoples OWN computers --still issues such as security needed but trend is going in the right direction.

Dont forget a lot of people who travel a lot and work remotely a huge amount of stuff such as presentations etc can be done on a LOCAL machine without any Network access required once the data has been downloaded from the central server.

Larger companies also have outsourced a lot of work to consultancy type companies too such as Accenture, PWC etc etc -- and these people need to access their OWN companies servers too mandating the use of a Laptop in most cases.

If a central network is down for maintenance / malicious attack, civil unrest or whatever and you only have diskless workstations and thin clients you are TOTALLY hosed up.

With people relocating central servers to cheaper and cheaper places - even INDIA is becoming too expensive for some companies as they try and save every last cent regardless of whether its worthwhile or not while they look for CHEAPER alternatives - the quality and robustness of the remote servers could be called into question quite considerably too.


Incidentally while people ARE looking for cheaper places to install IT infrstructure remember places like Bangladesh while looking a cheap alternative remember the downside that in these sort of countries irrespective of the quality and willingness of the local labour force to perform high quality work you are stuck with very real possibilities of significant outages due to Natural Causes -- floods, Tsunamis, Earthquakes etc.

The recent problems in Japan showed that if a sophisticated WEALTHY 1st world Country has problems with these types of events poorer countries such as Bangladesh would have ZERO chance of maintaining the infrastructure if these natural disasters occur and they will become increasingly likely in future too - global warming, sea levels rising etc etc.

Cheers

jimbo

This does exactly what you would expect really well.

Seems mad that it won't be available to authorised refurbishers to put on refurbished PC's - after all the sort of equipment being reused in the third world is exactly the hardware this is aimed at.

Odd decision as Microsoft (and Bill) have been pretty generous in the past with Office and XP licencing in these circumstances.

(only gripe is why include media player in the build if the codecs are excluded !!)