Chromebook

Amazon’s Thin Client: Wrong Idea, Wrong Time. Here’s Why.

…we have a generation that is growing up with modern computing interfaces. Instead, we are still pushing the “classic” models onto them. Why? If computing has to become modern, then we have to use modern models for everything. 

That’s me in May 2021.

Amazon, according to the internet, is launching a $195 thin client computer that allows workers to access cloud-based virtual desktops. This may sound familiar, and like many other experiments before, this too is coming at an awkward time. I say awkward because of where we are on the long arc of computing.

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The Paradigm Shift

You may have read the news that the University of Nevada, Reno, will give every member of its incoming freshman class an iPad Air (along with a keyboard and a pencil.) In and of itself, this development isn’t all that newsworthy, but it does hark back to something I have been thinking about for a long time: the coming — and necessary — paradigm shift in how we compute. 

Apple was once a much-beloved part of the US education system. Lately, Google’s Chromebooks have been taking over. They are cheaper, which may appeal to cash-strapped school districts. (By the way, kudos to Sarah & Ev Williams for giving $10 million to help the San Francisco school system.)

Now, suppose we can forget the politics of Google versus Apple. Personally, I don’t care either way. Chromebooks (like their Apple or Microsoft counterparts) are simply an extension of the old paradigm of

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