Server side operating systems ?

[Modelworks]

I have an engineer friend that is working on proof of concept hardware that connected pc's with fiber in a lan and set up a server to host the entire OS. Similar to remote desktop but with full directx support.
They played quake4 on 4 different pc's while the host server ran the os, handled the graphics with multiple quadro cards, captured the frame buffer, dumped it back to the players.

It allowed pc's to run with a 2d video card, 1gb ram, no hard drives (compact flash stored the boot software), network card. All the host pc was is basically a dumb terminal relaying the data and playing back video on the screen.

It played ok, It wasn't the smoothest, there was about a 100ms lag in mouse movement.
Its still in development though so it could get a lot better.

It would mean that home users would never have to update hardware much, since all the processing, 3d cards, sound, would be done server side.

The above of course would be a dream come true for software vendors.
Noone could pirate the software because its all server side.

Right now I know its not feasible because fiber to home everywhere isn't a reality.
Still I wonder if in 15 years if the above couldn't be the future.

 

[kamper]

That's not exactly a new idea, Sun has been preaching (rather ineffectively) about thin client computing for years. I can't say all the reasons it didn't catch on but the fact that the required hardware never really commoditized seems the most likely. Current hardware is still getting smaller, faster and cheaper at a pretty satisfactory rate, so there's no reason to even consider the hosted option if I can double my power every year or two for a grand or less.

Of course, we are seeing more stuff move to a hosted model, but for the most part that's all happening through the web which is also doing a pretty decent job of expanding. Maybe that'll die out in a few years when web technology hits its useful limit, or maybe we'll be doing everything in the descendants of flash for the next hundred years. Either way, I think cheap but decent hardware will remain at the client and the client will just download all its software at runtime.

 

[stash]

Thin clients have been around for a long time. Look up Wyse for example.

You probably won't play Quake4 on a Wyse terminal connected to a Windows Terminal Server, but it will do everything else. But there are a couple problems with the idea in the OP. First, it doesn't scale well for things like 3d gaming. You will need massive amounts of hardware on the backend, which of course costs money, which would need to be passed on to the user. Which leads to the second problem; how to make money on this idea. Do you charge a flat rate fee per month to connect as much as the user wants? Charge per session?

Either way, who wants to pay every time they use their computer, on top of the fees they have to pay to the ISP?

What if you want to install some app that isn't on the server?

 

[Bateluer]

For a corporate or business environment, or an educational institution, that would be great. Not a chance in hell would I want such a system for my home machine. I love having a powerful machine and control of my own hardware and software.

I'm thinking this would also cost many people their jobs. There wouldn't be much need for some of the more powerful hardware in a home machine today. Your terminal server would need mainly gobs of RAM and fast processors.

 

[Modelworks]

I realize the idea isn't new.

The hardware they are working on allows the video hardware on the server to , for lack of a better word, multiplex the video card so that the host server sees it as 2 video cards , when it is only one. The hardware is transparent to the software . The above setup with 4 pc clients was done with only two quadro cards. They have managed to run up to 4 task on one card, depending on how demanding the application is.

The server side gaming they did was just an example of things the hardware could be used for.

 

[VirtualLarry]

That sounds interesting. I'm more of a proponent of something like JetWay's "MagicTwin" software, that allowed a single PC with multi-output video cards and multiple keyboards and mice to host multiple console login sessions with Windows XP. It allowed you to use a single PC to play head-to-head networked FPS shooters, for example. It's a really neat idea that I'm sorry to see fizzle out. It would allow single PCs to perform multiple-duty tasks, just by adding a cheap USB keyboard+mouse (and perhaps a USB sound card too).