Thin Client

SOURCE -- MacIntel: The Thin Client Theory

by Chris Howard
Jun 13, 2005

If you happened to be on Mars for the last month, you might have thought you’d arrived back on the wrong planet.

Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo all switching to chips made by Apple’s ship supplier, IBM. But then Apple (or is that now Appel?) switching to Intel.

I wasn’t quite on Mars, I was in my nation’s capital (Canberra, Australia) for a week and had no contact with the internet or media. I get back and discover that IntHell has frozen over! Or is that AppHell?

Who turned off the heating? Has Hell been using PowerPC CPUs all this time - which as we know from Steve - run quite hot? Has Hell switched to the cooler Intel CPUs?

WinMacs

There are a couple of reasons I can see for this switch - Apple’s that is, not Hell’s. One is obvious. Apple can get a cut of the PC market. Sure the profits are slim but it can boost Apple’s market share significantly. Apple is a Tier 1 vendor, along with HP, Dell and IBM (although they are leaving the market). So if you only shop Tier 1, then you have a third option to replace the departing IBM.

Is this legitimate? Phil Schiller has already said you can run Windows on the x86 Macs, so why not? As an IT Manager currently buying Dell, I’d consider it, especially given the tight control over the hardware by Apple. Apple will not have a raft of configurations such as Dell has. They will still maintain a streamlined inventory. So in fact, the x86 Macs could quite feasibly become the most stable Windows PCs available! How’s that for irony?

Furthermore, if Apple can increase its market share up to 10 or 12% and even if a lot of that is Windows’ buyers, it gives them significantly more clout with Intel - something they’d lost with IBM because of their dwindling market share.

The end of the world?

Apple will still control the hardware. This is important. It’s not like Linux where if you have an x86 PC, you can run Linux on it. Yeah sure, clever folks will come out with hacks to allow you to run OS X Leopard on any x86 box, but it will be struggle to take off as there will need to be drivers for the plethora of hardware but to get drivers requires demand and importantly, a legitimate, supported OS. Apple isn’t ever going to support anything but their own x86 Macs because they’d end up with the same compatibility headaches as Windows. So unless Apple license OS X to other vendors (yeah right - when DHell freezes over), accessing drivers for non-supported x86 machines will be a major struggle and remain the domain of hackers and geeks.

So no end of the world. Apple will continue on just as they are today, making a proprietary OS and computer. Well for a few more years anyway…

If you do want the end of the world, you’re going to have to wait for thin-client computing.

Thin Client Computing

Thin client computing means the OS and applications are hosted remotely. In this scenario you will subscribe to the applications you require.

Thin client computing is Apple’s biggest long-term threat. Anyone who makes computers or OSes is under threat. This is quite possibly also a major reason behind the switch to Intel.

I’m not going to go into the what’s, why’s and wherefores of thin-client computing otherwise this article would double in size. But it is coming to a computer near you. It might be five years, or even ten, but when it comes where will that leave smaller OS vendors? Microsoft will dominate this space. It is where their future lies. They need to continue to control the OS and this is the future of the OS. And they already dominate the thin-client server space. Even Citrix, one of the biggest names in thin-client computing, requires a Windows server to run on.

Here comes Appel

So with Microsoft dominating the OS for thin-client servers and the disappearance of the desktop PC where would that leave Apple?

Enter Appel or Macintel or whatever clever moniker you’ve thought of for it. As we know, by 2010 all Mac apps will be native Intel. And that puts them one step closer to Windows versions of their applications.

But will Microsoft trump the Apple/Intel cartel and switch Windows to the PPC platform? Unlikely for the same reasons Apple are switching. What about an alliance with AMD to develop a proprietary CPU for Windows? Unlikely again as that would alienate too many dedicated users. And Microsoft doesn’t need to. They have the desktop market and the thin-client server market cornered.

So, Apple’s switch to Intel covers the bases for the next few years and the longer-term future move to thin-client computing.