On Sunday 31 December 2006 16:02, Uwe Thiem wrote: > On 31 December 2006 15:40, Mick wrote: > > The PC centric desktop on which M$ built their business model may be > > under threat. If the WebOS [1], GoogleOS [2], internet based desktop > > [3], etc. take off, then what will enable Gentoo to become a predominant > > system of choice both in the server and in the thin client markets? I > > don't think that Redmond will have much of a problem packaging a ROM > > embedded version of a thin client system and pushing it to all the > > Joe-public out there, who currently (mostly) blindly buy their products. > > Inertia may of course lead to their demise if they continue to market the > > individual desktop PC solution, but I wouldn't count on it. > > This won't happen for various reasons. > > In the business world, the main reason is security. Who will trust > an "Internet Desktop Provider" with their internal documents?
The same people who are trusting a multitude of outsourcing companies with their HR, Payroll, logistics, IT management and support, procurement, marketing, public relations, project delivery, . . . , you get the drift. I wouldn't trust them any more than you do, but in the world of hollow corporations there are a multitude of companies out there who would trust nearly anybody to "take this problem away". > In the world of home computing, there are actually two main reasons. The > first is porn. Why does porn need to stored locally?! > The second is nearly photo-realistic games. Of course. That is I think one area where a thin client will not be able to compete with a modern desktop PC. I don't play games and haven't seen what sort of latency a game played through FreeNX can achieve. On the other hand future gaming may be left to games consoles? > Another, not that important, reason is that there are vast areas in the > world where bandwidth is insufficient and far too expensive for it. Indeed, although most of these vast areas are sparsely populated and some of them are wired up as we speak - a friend who visited China 3 years ago mentioned that the gov't was laying yellow fibre-optic cables right across the country. -- Regards, Mick
pgpaqAHE29nmC.pgp
Description: PGP signature
