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JumpCrisscross • 11/04/2025 • 5 replies • view on HN

> using the computer as a dumb terminal to access centralized services "in the cloud"

Our personal devices are far from thin clients.


Replies

freedomben • 11/04/2025

Depends on the app, and the personal device. Mobile devices are increasingly thin clients. Of course hardware-wise they are fully capable personal computers, but ridiculous software-imposed limitations make that increasingly difficult.

immutology • 11/04/2025

"Thin" can be interpreted as relative, no?

I think it depends on if you see the browser for content or as a runtime environment.

Maybe it depends on the application architecture...? I.e., a compute-heavy WASM SPA at one end vs a server-rendered website.

Or is it an objective measure?

Cheer2171 • 11/04/2025

But that is what they are mostly used for.

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bigyabai • 11/04/2025

Speak for yourself. Many people don't daily-drive anything more advanced than an iPad.

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bandrami • 11/04/2025

I mean, Chromebooks really aren't very far at all from thin clients. But even my monster ROG laptop when it's not gaming is mostly displaying the results of computation that happened elsewhere