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Thin Client Software

A thin client software as an application program communicates with an application server and does not incorporate the significant elements of business logic which the overall (client-server) application implements. Instead, the core functions of the application are located on a distinct computing device, an application server, which may be located nearby in a LAN or at a distance on a WAN or MAN.

In short, a thin client does most of its processing on a central server with as little hardware and software as possible at the users site.

The meaning of the words "significant elements", "core function", "most" and "as little" are arguable.

Other definitions of thin versus thick/fat client application program try to draw the line at whether the deployment of the application requires the installation of additional software at the client or not. Unfortunately, this is also arguable, since e.g., a browser used for a client application might be part of one client platform, but not the other. So on one platform no additional software installation is required, while another client platform requires it.

There are also software-only thin clients which run on standard PC hardware or even on dedicated thin client hardware as previously mentioned. The best example of this software-only thin client is PXES Universal Linux Thin Client and Pilotlinux.

Perspective: Thin Client Computing

An application server is a server computer in a computer network dedicated for running certain software applications.

In the latter part of the 1990s, it was thought that a massive shift over to centrally served applications was likely, and that the desktop PC would be replaced by lightweight network computers. This was, in fact, a return to the much older model of computing as it was done in the 1960s, with a large, very expensive central computer being accessed by multiple users using dumb terminals.

The difference now was the widespread use of the GUI. Certain products, such as Citrix's WinFrame, became quite popular, allowing standard Windows software to be run on an NT server, and accessed from a wide variety of clients, including non-Windows platforms such as Mac and Unix. So far, this shift has not happened on the predicted scale, and serving a GUI-based application over a slow network has presented a number of technical challenges that have not entirely been solved. It remains to be seen if the prediction comes true or whether the late 90s interest turns out to have been a fad.

Some examples of protocols used for thin clients - server thin client computing are:

X11 - used by all Unix variants

VNC

Citrix ICA with MetaFrame - used by Windows RDP

HTML over HTTP - used by the myriads of web applications

Tarantella

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Thin Client".

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