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November 11, 2006

Sun's CEO: Google Is No Thin Client

CRN's Ed Moltzen writes up Sun comments on Google "thin client" and what is and isn't a thin client in the thin client computing world.

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Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz, whose company is generating much attention as it nears creating a General Public License for Java, is trying to re-define the term, "thin client." And that definition, he writes on his blog, doesn't describe a number services Google is now offering:

Industry convention says that apps written to browsers are defined to be "thin." But by that definition, thin really equates to "using someone else's runtime environment" -- in that the browser itself has to be present for the service to be rendered. And last I checked, browsers require operating systems and windowing environments. Not exactly thin. So in my book, it's inaccurate to say Google or YouTube are "thin clients" -- they're services that leverage someone else's thick client. A browser.

(It would be interesting to hear a response from Schwartz' old Sun colleague, Eric Schmidt, who is now Google's chairman and CEO.)

Schwartz wrote about thin clients as he heralded the release of Java Standard Edition 6. That, he believes, will help fuel the creation of more applications for "network clients."

Redefining technology comes with some risks, however. One risk is the risk of confusing the customer.

Wrote a commenter named "Mika" on Schwartz's blog:

"Where are the sunray thin clients in this picture? Are they counted as ultrathin clients, because they have no local computing power? Are they counted as thick clients, because they provide a full blown desktop? It is not that I dislike them, au contrair. . . But now I need some arguments, why I should buy more of them."


Posted by staff at November 11, 2006 03:08 PM