Editing Thin client (section)

==History==
[[Image:Samsung Chromebox.JPG|thumb|A connected [[Samsung Electronics|Samsung]] [[Chromebox]] as seen from above]]

Thin clients have their roots in [[multi-user systems]], traditionally [[mainframes]] accessed by some sort of [[computer terminal]]. As computer graphics matured, these terminals transitioned from providing a [[command-line interface]] to a full [[graphical user interface]], as is common on modern advanced thin clients. The prototypical multi-user environment along these lines, [[Unix]], began to support fully graphical [[X terminal]]s, i.e., devices running [[display server]] software, from about 1984. X terminals remained relatively popular even after the arrival of other thin clients in the mid-late 1990s.{{citation needed|date=September 2013}} Modern Unix derivatives like [[BSD]] and [[Linux]] continue the tradition of the multi-user, remote display/input session. Typically, X software is not made available on non-X-based thin clients, although no technical reason for this exclusion would prevent it.

[[Windows NT]] became capable of multi-user operations primarily through the efforts of [[Citrix Systems]], which repackaged [[Windows NT 3.51]] as the multi-user operating system [[WinFrame]] in 1995, launched in coordination with Wyse Technology's Winterm thin client. [[Microsoft]] licensed this technology back from Citrix and implemented it into [[Windows NT 4.0]] Terminal Server Edition, under a project codenamed "Hydra". Windows NT then became the basis of Windows 2000 and Windows XP. {{As of|2011}}, Microsoft Windows systems support graphical terminals via the [[Remote Desktop Services]] component. The Wyse Winterm was the first Windows-display-focused thin client (AKA Windows Terminal) to access this environment.

The term ''thin client'' was coined in 1993<ref>(thin client term was coined 1993) {{cite web
   |url=https://www.ft.com/content/dc70f841-54b7-3ef1-abf0-d6f32b270f76 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/dc70f841-54b7-3ef1-abf0-d6f32b270f76 |archive-date=2022-12-10 |url-access=subscription
   |title=Is this, finally, the thin
   |date=June 2, 2009  |author=Richard Waters}}</ref> by Tim Negris, VP of Server Marketing at [[Oracle Corporation]], while working with company founder [[Larry Ellison]] on the launch of [[Oracle database|Oracle 7]]. At the time, Oracle wished to differentiate their server-oriented software from Microsoft's desktop-oriented products. Ellison subsequently popularized Negris' [[buzzword]] with frequent use in his speeches and interviews about Oracle products. Ellison would go on to be a founding board member of thin client maker Network Computer, Inc (NCI), later renamed Liberate.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nerdtwilight.wordpress.com/2009/09/17/liberate-technologies-taking-strange-to-new-levels/|title=Liberate Technologies: Taking Strange to New Levels|date=17 September 2009}}</ref>

[[Image:ClientronU700.jpg|thumb|Size comparison – traditional desktop PC vs Clientron U700|left]]

The term stuck for several reasons. The earlier term "graphical terminal" had been chosen to distinguish such terminals from text-based terminals, and thus put the emphasis heavily on ''graphics''&nbsp;– which became obsolete as a distinguishing characteristic in the 1990s as text-only physical terminals themselves became obsolete, and text-only computer systems (a few of which existed in the 1980s) were no longer manufactured. The term "thin client" also conveys better what was then viewed as the fundamental difference: thin clients can be designed with less expensive hardware, because they have reduced computational workloads.

By the 2010s, thin clients were not the only desktop devices for general purpose computing that were "thin"&nbsp;– in the sense of having a small form factor and being relatively inexpensive. The [[nettop]] form factor for desktop PCs was introduced, and nettops could run full feature Windows or Linux; [[Tablet computer|tablet]]s, [[2-in-1 PC|tablet-laptop hybrid]]s had also entered the market. However, while there was now little size difference, thin clients retained some key advantages over these competitors, such as not needing a local drive. However, "thin client" can be a [[misnomer]] for slim form-factor computers using [[flash memory]] such as [[compactflash]], [[SD card]], or permanent flash memory as a [[hard disk]] substitute. In 2013, a Citrix employee experimented with a [[Raspberry Pi]] as a thin client.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dawood |first1=Muhammad |title=Citrix Receiver on Raspberry Pi delivering 1080p XenDesktop 7.1 experience |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ns5fJuQUH4 |website=Youtube.com|date=14 December 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Dawood |first1=Muhammad |title=How good is the new Raspberry Pi 4 as a thin client? |url=https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2019/07/08/how-good-is-the-new-raspberry-pi-4-as-a-thin-client/ |website=Citrix.com|date=8 July 2019 }}</ref> Since then, several manufacturers have introduced their version of Raspberry Pi thin clients.<ref name="Eric Brown" />