Over at ZDNews, John Carroll comments on the "PC-on-a-stick" concept.
That cost equation could result in there being more dumb terminals than there are USB Flash Drive / OS dongles, all in the interest of convenience. Adding it all together and averaging across the population might truly result in PC costs reaching the sub-$100 level. You'd pay under $100 for your "flash drive" OS and plug it into any terminal, which are commonplace due to the low cost of a machine stripped of all peripherals save for USB port in the front. Furthermore, you'd get something vastly more portable than a laptop.
I've been thinking about this for a while. The idea of having a portable, bootable environment you take with you anywhere has many advantages besides cost. While cost for the consumer is a factor, there are other things to consider.
First, if you have a dumb desktop and laptop that both boot to a portable drive like that, you would never have to sync your data. You could back it up, but you could take all of your files, your software, and your preferences with you. Working on the plane, or in a hotel, or in a remote office could be just like working in your personal office. You wouldn't even need to worry about multiple licenses for specialized software like PhotoShop, Microsoft Project, or Dreamweaver. You would take that software with you everywhere.
Security is another benefit. The entire bootable device could be encrypted. The dumb terminals would only access the device after some kind of authentication like password or even biometrics. Since you would take your operating system with you, public terminals no longer are a security risk from the perspective of you accidentally leaving personal information on it. The public terminal owners would no longer have to spend time and money on operating systems and software licenses and, most importantly, virus removal.
Business would love this concept because the idea of a corporate standard hard drive image to a much simpler type of image. The image would be the same for everybody regardless of the hardware because for this to work, there would have to be a standard in place for the terminals to be able to read the devices. Businesses would also have much more control over the user's environment and could manage software licenses, distribution, and configuration issues (e.g. VPN access, mapped network drives, etc.) more efficiently.
The downsides to moving in this direction relate to hardware standards for the dumb terminals and the assumption that companies like Microsoft won't try and have a variation that's all their own. Standards don't come easy, and users have to adjust to a new way of computing. However, this idea appeals to me and I think the practicality of it will override the downsides in the long run. Start looking for this concept to become more real the larger that USB flash drives get.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Unrest by Parkway Drive