Ya' know, just since my fiasco with the spyware crap, it got me to thinking ...which I really shouldn't do! :)

But I was thinking that, for people like me, who know absolutely nothing about computers, it would be really nice if someone set up a server system where I could just have a dinking "nothing" workstation and connnect up to him via the internet.

If my "computer"/workstation goes down, I just toss it in the trash and buy another workstation costing about $100. The server would have any and all software that I wanted, and I'd just pay him a small monthly fee. If I wanted the flight simulation "Falcon 4", he'd go get it, install it, make it work, then I could log on and fly it anytime I wanted to ....with no worries!

Why not? When are they gonna' get around to something like that?

Baron Max

They're called 'shell' accounts and are quite cheap (if you can handle the lack of fancy graphics.)

Otherwise, bandwith these days, in most of the world, is too low to adequately tunnel a desktop environment. It would cost too much to lay the infrastructure. Add that to dropping PC prices and you see why shells haven't evolved yet.

If you have a problem with spyware, buy a Mac. If you want free, install Linux. There really is no reason to be 'forward thinking' with such old ideas.