backup & low downtime for home network

Robert Brockway robert-5LEc/6Zm6xCUd8a0hrldnti2O/JbrIOy at public.gmane.org
Thu Dec 6 03:19:40 UTC 2007


On Wed, 5 Dec 2007, Christopher Browne wrote:

> The problem I have always had with the "thin client" approach is much
> the same as my problem with automobile leasing.

Hi Chris.  I'm not sure I see this as a good analogy :)

> Both *ought* to be enormously more beneficial to users than the
> rapacious vendors allow it to be.

That was the old days.  Indeed first time around greedy thin client 
vendors priced themselves out of the market - early PCs were actually 
cheaper because the thin client vendors thought they had the market 
cornered.  They were wrong of course and set thin client adoption back 20 
years.

But those days are gone.  These days a cheap/old PC will make a wonderful
thin client.  True thin clients can be had for a low price.

> Not too dissimilar, if I am buying an X term that's got wimpier CPU
> and no disk and needs less case and less cooling and less electricity,
> this *ought* to mean that the unit costs about as much as a videogame,
> that is, somewhere about $200-$300-ish.

The thin client currently on my desk was USD279.  Dedicated thin clients
can easily be had for half this price.  This one came from
www.disklessworkstations.com (which I have no affiliation with except
being a customer).

> Reality is, instead, that once the vendors get thru with you, you've
> paid $800 for it, and that's so insultingly more than a cheap

I have seen thin clients advertised at that price in recent years.  I just
laugh and move on.  A few large corporations do buy them but you and I 
don't have to.

> It just feels like an insult to buy something that's smaller *and less
> featureful* and pay quite a bit more for it.

Chris, you don't.  Not anymore.  Not for a long time.  You pay less for a 
thin client and get a lot of advantages in to the bargain.

Cheers,

Rob

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