Thin Client

Published: June 28, 2010
by Hesh Wiener

Is corporate computing better off when end users have powerful Windows machines or relatively powerless thin clients? The answer is Yes. For the past couple years, computer makers have offered technology that lets users choose what kind of client they see when they boot up, but the vendors did a terrible job of selling this versatile concept. Now, however, things are starting to change. Microclient technology, which turns wide-open PCs into locked-down terminals, works well. One more thing: It is nearly free.

So just what is a microclient? It is a mix of hardware and software that turns any computer into a tightly managed Web appliance with a small collection of applications. So it is pretty secure. It is also quick. On a typical computer (whether laptop or desktop), a microclient can boot up in something like 15 seconds and it runs as lightning fast. The applications built into microclients provide Web browsing, cloud email, instant messaging, Internet telephony, and virtual desktop computing (as defined by Citrix Systems, Microsoft, or VMware). To keep the environment stable, predictable, and secure, the microclients don't let users change applications. Any changes in microclients come from their creators, their computer vendor resellers, and, in the future, very possibly software and services providers who want to add special features that tie microclients to, for instance, ERP applications suites.

Microclients are still new, evolving, and changing shape. For now, as a first approximation, you might want to think of a microclient as an iPad without the Apple Apps Store . . . but with a keyboard and a mouse and a Skype phone.
Currently, computer makers (and at least one supplier of motherboards sold via retail as well as industry channels, Asus) favor microclients based on the Splashtop family of products from DeviceVM. But there is also an alternative called Hyperspace.

Hyperspace was developed by Phoenix Technologies. In June, Hewlett-Packard bought Hyperspace for $12 million, but if has not integrated Hyperspace into its product line. HP still offers Splashtop derivatives on its various products.
Both microclient systems are built on Linux and both are aimed at users of machines that run Windows when they are not in the microclient environment.

Splashtop has setup and configuration software that requires Windows (XP or later). Users make adjustments to their Splashtop setup while it is dormant. There are some configuration options available within Splashtop, but some tasks, such as password management, are done from outside, as if Splashtop is an application, not a complete operating environment. So even though users are running Linux when they boot to Splashtop, the package isn't yet available for Ubuntu or any of the other client-oriented Linux distros. (Once set up via Windows, Splashtop can be run on a machine that multi-boots into Windows, MacOS, Linux and Solaris.)

Hyperspace is also tied to Windows, perhaps even more closely than Splashtop. During installation, Hyperspace depends on Microsoft's partition management software to rope off part of the target computer's boot drive for its use. Like Splashtop, even though it also is written to share a system with Windows, it can probably be set up to work on a multi-boot system.
One distinction between Hyperspace and Splashtop is the use of virtualization in Hyperspace to allow a computer with hardware virtualization support to boot Windows at the same time Hyperspace starts up. The two operating systems can be alive simultaneously and uses can flip back and forth between them. By contrast, a user running Splashtop must shut down that environment to go to Windows. However, by using Windows hibernation along with Splashtop the transition can be accomplished without having to close Windows applications. It is not clear whether this distinction will make much different to ordinary business users, who might well see no point in bouncing between big Windows and small Linux.

For IT managers who just want their end users' machines to come to their servers using secure, consistent thin clients, Splashtop technology is a pretty good place to start. This is particularly true for companies whose end users are mobile. Microclient technology is very widely available for portable computers ranging in power from the lightest 10-inch netbooks up to portable workstations with the heft to run CAD applications, financial simulations or video editing packages. Any current or recent desktop machine can be equipped with microclient technology, with versions of Hyperspace being built from scratch for aftermarket installation. Splashtop, by contrast, really needs some hardware support and it's not clear whether it can run in machines that were built without it in mind; it seems as if it would need some BIOS support that has to be baked in to a computer right from the start.

Rest of Article -- The Four Hundred--Mad Dog 21/21: Microclients: Thin Enough? Rich Enough?