Comment Articles

Home PCs need thinning out

Rupert Goodwins ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 09 Dec 2004 12:35 GMT

The eternal problem is that PCs are general purpose machines. They can do everything -- usually far more than you want and in ways that defy explanation. Thin clients don't remove that capability but they change the rules: they can do everything that their host server permits. At which point, the savvy service provider can put the kibosh on all the evils of the undomesticated home computer. Every single sin that besets the unmanaged PC -- unpatched operating systems, malware, lost data, incompatible applications, incorrect drivers, spam and general idiocy -- can be cured or at the least dramatically curtailed. With ninety percent of helpdesk calls thus removed, proper human support would even be possible.

What would such a service look like? A good model is the mobile phone industry: heavily discounted or free client hardware, a monthly flat-rate charge for connectivity and a variety of services available at a range of prices from free to plumptious. You'd want standard productivity software, email and Web software thrown in: the crucial difference with business thin client would be good multimedia support. People will want to plug their digital cameras in -- there'll have to be lots of storage -- and managing how they can access new software will take some ingenuity. Games? Why not. The whole games industry is edging towards thin client, with consoles becoming exceptionally well-endowed terminals hooked into massive multiplayer environments. That fits easily into the model of well-managed processor farms.

Most ZDNet UK readers wouldn't want to subscribe. I wouldn't. But if such a service was available at a reasonable premium over vanilla broadband access, I'd be selling it as hard as I could to everyone who doesn't want to be -- shouldn't have to be -- bothered with the swamp of monsters that is home computing these days. The appeal to IT departments should be obvious. As should the appeal to service providers: they can afford to offer a far better experience to their customers than anyone else can get near, and they get a stonking channel to sell software and services such as VoIP. They also get an instant Internet-connected small office product to sell into SMEs.

Would they make money? How could they fail -- if half the figures we're fed about TCO on thin client systems in the enterprise are true, then the whole system should cost at least a third less. Setting the sweet spot so that the customer feels like they're getting a bargain while extracting their fractional cost of the server is just a matter of the appropriate marketing, after all.

And the rest of us can finally tear down those FAFSS certificates from the wall and get on with those power user games of chase the Bagel, lose the backup and patch the Windows. Those thin clients look more tempting by the day.