Re: The Desktop Strikes Back [was Re: Newbie FAQ #2: Where's the GUI?]

On Apr 5, 1:20 am, John <slawmas...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

We used to have this. It was called an "X Terminal", and you ran X
locally
while programs executed on a remote server. I realize that you and
plenty
of other people here probably know about them too, but I am always
amused
when somebody suggests, "We don't need to run anything locally, just a
remote desktop client/web browser/whatever!"
I do something similar with Plan 9; you boot the terminal, it mounts a
remote
root over the network, and you're golden. No installing apps for you,
leave
that to the sysadmin. If your terminal is old, you also have the
option of
running them on the server.
Nothing new under the sun, but a lot of old things people have
forgotten ;)

I don't think these things have been forgotten (or rather, I do, but
they haven't been forgotten by the people who count).

X terminals had three big problems:
- Windows. This was obviously the real killer. "Windows" really
means "Office file formats", and sometime in the mid it became
essentially impossible for most people to work without something
completely compatible with them, which meant Office/Windows.
Somewhere I have a document on the viral nature of these things which
I should dig out.
- Infrastructure requirements. At the time most non-technical
environments probably had inadequate networking, and inadequate
servers/server management to support them.
- Session state. X is session-based so you can't move to a free desk
and get your existing session. VNC &c fix this, but not in time to
save X terminals (which would, anyway, be "VNC terminals"...). Having
desktops follow you around is a huge win for organisations which want
to get away with providing less desks than people, or which want to
allow people to work from wherever-they-are. Lots of companies want
to do this.

One of the people who have not forgotten X terminals are Sun, who have
been pushing their SunRay thin clients for a long time. The networking
&c problems have fixed themselves, while SunRays fix the session state
& Windows problems - you can have a Windows desktop, and your desktop
follows you around - I've seen people painlessly using an existing
desktop they last used the other side of the Atlantic.

Although it is not easily possible to overestimate Sun's ability to
screw things up, SunRays ought to be a very compelling proposition to
organisations facing regulatory pressure to enforce desktop security,
and with large numbers of desktops. That's not a small market.
.

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