Hello
@atanere
Reading the above thread, a stupid idea come to my head.
Let's say that I have a thin client and an external disk and then I will connect them together and all together with a monitor, it would be a complete machine?
As far as I know inside a thin client there is a basic sound & graphic card and a RAM is that correct? So I could have a "native" machine.
Actually I should start a new thread but I don't think is that so necessary
Not a stupid idea, Captain... it's on topic and I think the OP will appreciate expanding the conversation for his benefit as well.
I have a couple of these devices at work, but I'm not responsible for setting them up or maintaining them, so my personal knowledge is next to nothing. Besides the Wikipedia article above,
here is another overview from a company that seems to sell them.
You are correct in that they do not have a hard disk for storage, but they are even more limited than that. They differ from a PC (a "fat client") in a number of ways... all in the effort to save money, energy, maintenance, etc. So, they do not possess a complete operating system themselves. As the OP found, when you connect one to a monitor and turn it on... it expects a network connection to a server. So that capability is included in its minimal internal OS... it knows how to phone home to a server, but that's about all (on it's own). If the server can be reached, then it can access the tools and applications that it needs to be useful... but those tools/apps are actually running on the server. That's why this strikes me as very much like the old days of using a dumb terminal on a mainframe computer network. But it's more high-tech now.... and some folks think this is the future of "cloud computing." And maybe it is.
A lot of people might appreciate the inexpensive thin client installed at home with simple directions to connect to the server on their ISP... and all they need to do after that is run the tools they want... a virtual Windows, running Office, web browser, email, and some other basic tools. No PC needed... no hard drive, no defrag, no anti-virus, no Windows Updates.... heck, that almost appeals to me!
(No, I think I'll stick with Linux.)
They certainly are an interesting technology... but they just aren't really a computer by themselves.
Cheers