The Worth of Network Computer / Thin-Client Concept

With the recent announcement of partnership plan between Sun Microsystems and Google Inc. rumours have been around about the possible nature of collaboration. Network Computing (”Network is the computer”) featured prominently in such discussions. It is time to take a second look at the concept - the value proposition of the well-beaten horse.

Networked PC concept is dead in Home PC / Home-Office PC Sector
I think people has opted for desktop PC’s in home environment. No questions about that. I like my PC to be powerful and I don’t want to depend on any network to fetch the brain of my PC every time I boot.

Networked PC for Business
For a business the picture is slightly different. I know I would like to have better control over all the machines, their software installations, license etc. Some companies would also like to keep an audit trail of activities, especially financial institutions.
The holy-grail of perfectly manageable PC environment in a large office hasn’t yet been achieved.

I would for example like to replace all copies of MS Office with say Star Office / Abi Word just by just clicking on some fancy interface. No luck so far.
How about managing and debugging all PC’s from a single web UI accessible across the intranet?

Every system administrator would salivate at the idea of automatic upgrade to all software across all machines simultaneously with the added capability of mass rollback.

Network PC’s, if properly implemented, can make all this and more a reality.

I don’t think the vision is flawed in any aspect. However the execution and marketing is poor. Sun doesn’t market ideas very well.

Note: Java stood because of itself and not because of Sun’s marketing, which was virtually non-existent in the early stages to put it politely.

If only we could create a company with Microsoft’s Marketing and Sun’s Javasoft and/or Solaris team…