SkinnyPC are launching a thin client unit for the home next week. I have been trialling it for a week now and have been impressed. Thin clients have traditionaly been used in businesses but with ever increasing network speeds it’s a suprise no one else seems to offer this service.

Basically as long as you have an internet connection and something to plug an ethernet cable in such as a router it’s all pre-configured and simply works. You connect to a hosted desktop and have access to the usual things such as Firefox web browser, office products, email and more. It’s great news for some people, especially for users who just use the basics. They get 2GB of storage thrown in as well. I’ve been using it as a second PC for my wife and daughter so I can actually use my own PC for more than half an hour at a time. It’s also something i’m going to be recommending to friends and family from now on. There’s nothing much that can go wrong with a thin client so viruses, backups and the usual problems with inexperienced users are all things that I won’t be getting phone calls about. USB ports and printing work a treat as well so getting stuff from the SkinnyPC isn’t a problem.
It’s a hosted Linux desktop you connect to due to the licensing costs of Microsoft and there are obvious downsides such as the inability to install software but for many users this is a cheap alternative to buying a PC. The price hasn’t been announced for the SkinnyPC device yet as it’s not available until next week but the cost of the hosted desktop is just £5 a month or £50 a year which is more than reasonable. They are also offering a 7 day free trial of the hosted desktop which has benefits of it’s own (keep it under your hat but you get  published applications, one of which is Firefox which means anonymous surfing at work!) such as the ability to access your files anyplace, anytime. Not sure whether it will take off or not but there are several thin client manufacturers making their devices SkinnyPC compliant so the pricing is looking like it will be competitive.