thick and big, thin and small

Robert Scoble claims that thick clients are coming back. Robert, I support you wholeheartedly!

Hopefully that is also the Microsoft view of the world as well. Thick clients  as in logic and information inseparable, ad-hock-buckets of process parts needing great amounts of middleware (IBM will kiss your feet) and get-stuck-in-one-suite/system-only (good for people in Redmond, I suspect).

Let us small guys do the right thing in peace. Unencumbered by the biggies, just like when IBM left  Microsoft alone to grow, and when British Airways discounted the ideas of Easyjet and Ryanair.

Thank you, keep it up.

And, Om Malik and Larry, hush please, do not rock the boat, do not warn of wall approaching, etc. :)

Comments

[Ric]

Sig you're a sick puppy! But you're right, Microsoft have a vested interest in pushing the thick client line, because they're getting beaten by smaller, lighter, more agile competitors everywhere else. And while WinFS may be pretty - an entire file system based on SQL Server seems like a one-way ticket to oblivion.

[sig]

Hehe... it's kind of funny at the end of the day, established firms always defends their bread-and-butter till they die. And one day that happens for all if history has anything to tell us!

Some biggies have survived long periods, but they have all changed profoundly.

But we do not want that would we? Much better for us small guys if they defend status quo as long as possible :D

[Ian Tyrrell]

The problem with thin clients is that they aren't instant-on wherever you are. They require more infrastructure than just a power-cable.

Wireless isn't everywhere yet, once it is, then maybe the thin client can take over.

[sig]

Ian, I agree totally on both counts, and:

Instant-on and speed: That requires some thinking about size of what's delivered too. And honestly, simple is not bad at all :)

Add (very important aspect) that breaking up today's all-in-one events dismembered from other events/tasks/instructions in a flow will give smaller units to deliver and less "feature-rich" interfaces per event.

Wireless: Yess, that we want. And all kind of gadgets, mobile phones/PDA-like-stuff/laptops/tablets whatnot useful anywhere. And here's the beauty with the web, most if not all have one universal client - a browser.

Thus to speed it all up - be consequent in delivering only one task/event/instruction at a time in a real flow, minimise clutter and size of delivered bytes and make it universally readable and inputable for any device...

:)

[James McCarthy]

It's ironic that MS introduced xmlHTTPRequest into explorer, which has resulted in a new burst of web applications that kick ass & often its desktop apps asses getting kicked.
(MicroSoft)Point gun at foot, squeeze trigger.