A company called Zonbu is offering a paperback-thin desktop PC for $99 that runs Gentoo Linux on 4GB of internal flash.
Using fully functional virtual machines and low power "thin client" desktop machines could reduce power consumption further still.
Cherry says that the new switches "can be used just as easily for mechanical keyboards in high-end notebooks as for unusually thin mechanical desktop keyboards," but I expect they'll mainly be used in gaming laptops.
That can be virtual desktops, thinner clients like mobile devices or very thin traditional desktops and notebooks.
There is a very fast and low latency network between the thin-client desktop and the server where the desktop is running.
Technical services leader at the college, Irfan Patail, whose department looks after more than 1,100 laptops, 400 thin clients and 500 desktops, said desktop virtualisation is currently available to 700 staff, but plans to extend this to students will be considered over the next few months.
The idea of using "thin client" computers on desktops instead of full-fledged desktop PC's is not new.
We're also looking at virtualizing the desktop with thin clients so we have the services hosted on the back end.
If you do get hit you need to work from the inside out from the servers to the thin clients to the desktop PC, which will be the most labor-intensive and provide the least return.
The big kicker is that the company might be planning an ad-supported version of the service, based on MS Works, which will enable those so inclined to do most of their work in the browser or in a very thin client on the desktop.
Noting rising interest in thin clients and virtual desktops, H.P. created a new group six months ago to address the technology, after buying the thin-client company Neoware for $214 million in late 2007.
