From Terminals to… Terminals

The irony of how we use computers.

When the processor time was expensive, there was only one heavy computer with lots of terminals connected for access. Then the personal computers came and suddenly, everyone had to have one bragging about their hardware, processor type, memory size etc.

Then came the internet and with the broadband connections becoming ubiquitous and using more and more web applications our computers are becoming only end points. All (or most of the) data are stored in the server clouds and although available as a separate machine, we are using our computers as terminals without actual need for strong processor or large memory.

I guess it would be even cheaper to have an actual terminal and using miniSD card or USB flash key for those private data we don’t want Google (Microsoft, etc.) to have access to.

Terminal services paradigm seems to win in the end.