> using the computer as a dumb terminal to access centralized services "in the cloud"
Our personal devices are far from thin clients.
"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?
Speak for yourself. Many people don't daily-drive anything more advanced than an iPad.
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
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.