SearchServerVirtualization wrote an interesting article about thin computing, now more interesting with VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) initiative and its partners, and application virtualization approaches.
The most interesting part pushes the idea application virtualization solutions could be more appreciated than thin clients and could grab existing market quotes:
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In the long run, application virtualization may make a much deeper impression on the desktop than thin clients because it doesn’t require the use of proprietary hardware.
Like application virtualization today, thin computing of yore had as a mantra to “make the client system more flexible and secure,” said Michael Dortch, principal business analyst and IT infrastructure management practice leader at the Robert Frances Group Inc. in Westport, Conn. “But the way to do it was never to take away existing hardware and replace it with something far less functional – that was never going to fly.”By using on the same desktop PC hardware that users have come to know and love – or at least tolerate, said Dortch, “[app virtualization] takes today’s thick client and instead of trying to make it thin, makes it more fit and agile.”
Read the whole article at source.