WTF are you getting on about? Do we have to give full definitions for everything in the days of wikipedia and google searches? Geez, show a little initiative and look something up and say whether you agree or disagree based on that rather than whining because you can't be bothered to understand playing field.
Running a Citrix app doesn't make a platform a thin client. I have PCs and Macs that run Citrix too, I don't think anyone would call them thin clients. Hell the Citrix client app interfacing with the remote application server is running as a local fat application! When I connect to a remote cluster controller via X11, the X11 content is served from that remote machine, but I'm still running the X11 interface as a fat app locally.
Thick vs fat client is about the capabilities of the platform. If a platform does onboard general application processing and have large primary and secondary storage capability, its fat. Thats more than a few dozen MB of non-graphics dedicated RAM and any generally usable GB of HD/SSD in the current hardware generation and an OS that lets you chose what programs to run.
Smart phones are fat clients for heavens sake! Skimpy ones, but fat nonetheless. They are useful even when out of all network connectivity, a thin client would just sit there, useless.
He shouldn't have to search in order to know what someone said when contradicting someone else's statement. Beside you rag on him for not searching for the def, then you provide a basic one, so by get in his face?
He shouldn't have to search in order to know what someone said when contradicting someone else's statement. Beside you rag on him for not searching for the def, then you provide a basic one, so by get in his face?
I need you to define every word you just wrote because, according to you, one ?shouldn?t have to search in order to know what someone said when contradicting someone else's statement?. See how silly that is? If you think the OP thought ?thin client? referred to the physical thinness of the device and not the longstanding, well-defined tech term as stated on this tech forum then please point it out to us.
I honestly think tablets will displace PCs (laptops and desktops) completely and within a short time frame. In retrospect, I think the desktop and laptop form factors are terrible. When I see people using laptops now, it looks awkward. They're hunched over it. If they have the computer on their lap, the screen is pointing at their stomach. Having a keyboard attached to the screen is not very practical. The indirect interaction of a mouse or trackpad feels like a definite step backwards after using an iOS device for a long time. I don't buy arguments from precision either. Nobody needs to be pixel precise unless they're doing pixel art.
I think the 'hardware keyboard' thing is overblown. Typing hasn't been a popular activity for long. Less than a generation ago everything was handwritten. Most people aren't fast typists and have no need to be. Onscreen keyboards are 'good enough.' There's certainly not such a strong need for a hardware keyboard that you'd do something as absurd as attaching one to the screen and switching to indirect control rather than touch because you then have to place the thing on your lap or a desk. If you look at it that way - would I sacrifice the iPad's qualities for these minuscule advantages a laptop/desktop form factor gives me in some situations? - I think it's obvious the tablet form factor will win out and in a big way.
Desktops have already been on the way out. The demand for more processing power and storage has started to plateau. Most tasks done on computers make sense for multitouch interaction: video editing, photo editing, presentations, spreadsheets, equation editing, document layout, drawing, 3d modelling, etc. Even programming could work; multitouch tablets could see visual programming or structure editors making a comeback (the problem always was speed of interaction). Perhaps some of these tasks would benefit from a larger screen. More memory and faster CPUs are a given and the one thing we know will come in the future. But I see no reason they'd somehow benefit from an attached hardware keyboard and an indirect method of interaction.
I think 2011 is going to be the iPad's big year and a lot of people are going to wake up and realise there's really nothing this form factor can't do and, in many cases, do it much better than existing devices. I think people are vastly underestimate the huge psychological difference between the way we interact with our software now - where, if you want to do something, you first have to use the mouse to move the cursor to the button or switch and only then can you press it - and the way you do it on the iPad (just go ahead and press it). And I think they vastly overestimate the need for a hardware keyboard (as they did with the iPhone; unsurprising, really, since all these reviews and opinion pieces are written by people who are paid by the word).
Have you ever seen somebody doing computer based tasks for their employer? Check it out sometime. You'll probably notice that text entry is a large part of their work.
Comments
Agreed.
Please.
http://www.scottevest.com/v3_store/R...n-Jacket.shtml
Well now, that just tipped the scales, seriously I didn't really want to carry a bag just for the iPad, now I wont!
WTF are you getting on about? Do we have to give full definitions for everything in the days of wikipedia and google searches? Geez, show a little initiative and look something up and say whether you agree or disagree based on that rather than whining because you can't be bothered to understand playing field.
Running a Citrix app doesn't make a platform a thin client. I have PCs and Macs that run Citrix too, I don't think anyone would call them thin clients. Hell the Citrix client app interfacing with the remote application server is running as a local fat application! When I connect to a remote cluster controller via X11, the X11 content is served from that remote machine, but I'm still running the X11 interface as a fat app locally.
Thick vs fat client is about the capabilities of the platform. If a platform does onboard general application processing and have large primary and secondary storage capability, its fat. Thats more than a few dozen MB of non-graphics dedicated RAM and any generally usable GB of HD/SSD in the current hardware generation and an OS that lets you chose what programs to run.
Smart phones are fat clients for heavens sake! Skimpy ones, but fat nonetheless. They are useful even when out of all network connectivity, a thin client would just sit there, useless.
He shouldn't have to search in order to know what someone said when contradicting someone else's statement. Beside you rag on him for not searching for the def, then you provide a basic one, so by get in his face?
He shouldn't have to search in order to know what someone said when contradicting someone else's statement. Beside you rag on him for not searching for the def, then you provide a basic one, so by get in his face?
I need you to define every word you just wrote because, according to you, one ?shouldn?t have to search in order to know what someone said when contradicting someone else's statement?. See how silly that is? If you think the OP thought ?thin client? referred to the physical thinness of the device and not the longstanding, well-defined tech term as stated on this tech forum then please point it out to us.
I honestly think tablets will displace PCs (laptops and desktops) completely and within a short time frame. In retrospect, I think the desktop and laptop form factors are terrible. When I see people using laptops now, it looks awkward. They're hunched over it. If they have the computer on their lap, the screen is pointing at their stomach. Having a keyboard attached to the screen is not very practical. The indirect interaction of a mouse or trackpad feels like a definite step backwards after using an iOS device for a long time. I don't buy arguments from precision either. Nobody needs to be pixel precise unless they're doing pixel art.
I think the 'hardware keyboard' thing is overblown. Typing hasn't been a popular activity for long. Less than a generation ago everything was handwritten. Most people aren't fast typists and have no need to be. Onscreen keyboards are 'good enough.' There's certainly not such a strong need for a hardware keyboard that you'd do something as absurd as attaching one to the screen and switching to indirect control rather than touch because you then have to place the thing on your lap or a desk. If you look at it that way - would I sacrifice the iPad's qualities for these minuscule advantages a laptop/desktop form factor gives me in some situations? - I think it's obvious the tablet form factor will win out and in a big way.
Desktops have already been on the way out. The demand for more processing power and storage has started to plateau. Most tasks done on computers make sense for multitouch interaction: video editing, photo editing, presentations, spreadsheets, equation editing, document layout, drawing, 3d modelling, etc. Even programming could work; multitouch tablets could see visual programming or structure editors making a comeback (the problem always was speed of interaction). Perhaps some of these tasks would benefit from a larger screen. More memory and faster CPUs are a given and the one thing we know will come in the future. But I see no reason they'd somehow benefit from an attached hardware keyboard and an indirect method of interaction.
I think 2011 is going to be the iPad's big year and a lot of people are going to wake up and realise there's really nothing this form factor can't do and, in many cases, do it much better than existing devices. I think people are vastly underestimate the huge psychological difference between the way we interact with our software now - where, if you want to do something, you first have to use the mouse to move the cursor to the button or switch and only then can you press it - and the way you do it on the iPad (just go ahead and press it). And I think they vastly overestimate the need for a hardware keyboard (as they did with the iPhone; unsurprising, really, since all these reviews and opinion pieces are written by people who are paid by the word).
Have you ever seen somebody doing computer based tasks for their employer? Check it out sometime. You'll probably notice that text entry is a large part of their work.