Just what is it about thin clients that makes normally sensible people suddenly be struck stupid?
Really, just what is it?
In a story in the weekly business glossy, BusinessWeek, a supposedly informed journalist writes about the Celio Redfly C8N, MSRP at $299.
Just what is a Celio Redfly C8N, you ask.
It is, and I swear I am not making this up, a thin client, with a form factor like that of a netbook – ultra-thin computer, if you ask Ballmer.
The kicker here is that the C8N, is without its own processor, and is meant to pair wirelessly with a smartphone running the Windows Mobile OS, in order to for the sucker purchaser to work on Pocket Word and Excel documents.
Excuse me?
Are you fucking kidding me?
You would pay $300 US for a CPU-less shell of a thin client in order to run Pocket Word?
Then it hit me: I have heard this story before.
Yes, I have.
Then, the device was called the Palm Foleo, a stillborn abomination that would have run on that most bastardized of operating systems, YALD, aka Yet Another Linux Distro.
In fact, on my blog on NetworkWorld.com back in September of 2007, in what was my third blog post on the subject, I thought I have delivered the final word on this nonsense.
(Palm Folly, Palm Foleo II, a numbskull’s post on ComputerWorld, and my finale, Hawkins’ Folly.)
To my consternation, this remedial idea is not only still alive, but being funded by, a VC cadre, no doubt.
For goodness sakes, the HP Mini 1000 Mi Edition starts at $279! And that is a system that runs Windows 7 very well. (I should know – I have Windows 7 running on it at The Orbiting O’Odua!)
I read and re-read the article, looking for the witty punch line, where the author would recant, then inform us that he was pulling out legs, but couldn’t find one.
Quoting from my blog back in 2007:
Do some members of the mainstream IT press have no shame?
That sad state of affairs is still evident today.
Cliff, Brotha’, stop it at once, okay? That turkey is never going to fly, no matter how many papier-mâché wings you glue on it!
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