> On Sunday 12 February 2012 04:58:58 pm Timothy Pearson wrote:
>> Just to jump in here, there is one use case for a lightweight DE that
>> doesn't involve obsolete hardware: multiuser mainframe-type systems.
>> When
>> you have 50 users on one central server, each with a session that is
>> being
>> accessed via a remote desktop protocol such as VNC or even the X
>> protocols, slight reductions in the overhead of each session make a big
>> difference overall.
>>
>> Just something to think about in these odd times, when the personal
>> computer is being "replaced" with a variant of the old central mainframe
>> model....
>>
>> Tim
>
> Are you talking about cloud computing?

A specific type of cloud computing, yes.  Most cloud computing is Web
based, but there are a few instances of cloud computing where the entire
desktop GUI is handled on the remote server and the client is just an I/O
device with a network connection.

> I've been wandering how that would actually work. I mean, if we all get
> rid of our boot devices and use "the cloud" to boot our computers and run
> our apps, how would we configure our computers to know what server(s) to
> boot from? How would TDE tie into that (as in, how will it work being
> loaded from "the cloud", and how would the TDE desktop environment change
> as a whole)? I know that's thinking way far in advance as far as TDE goes,
> but I'm just curious ;-)

Remember these?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Computing_Devices

Make the monitor into a touch flatscreen, update the network conection
with WiFi and Gigabit Ethernet, integrate the optional monitor and
keyboard into a laptop- or tablet-like device and I think you have where
we are going.

Truly scary for developers, content producers, or anyone with data worth
stealing, but for the masses it might actually work rather well (and there
would be big bucks to be made in providing computing services to these
devices).

Just my $0.02. :-)

Tim