The Sun model of beefy server, ultra-thin client worked incredibly well and presaged the widespread adoption of virtualisation that eventually led to cloud computing and containerised software. Unfortunately that model made it very easy to undercut their prices using commodity hardware; I managed a Solaris/Sun Ray network c.2004 and it was cheaper to switch to Linux/Intel and buy spare hardware to keep in a cupboard “just in case” than to keep the Sun network going through its support contract.
I worked at Sun labs and used a Sun Ray daily for a whole summer. It worked...OK. Definitely not "Incredibly well". We had a network of a few hundred Sun Rays and two E10Ks backing it. More than a million for the servers and $1000k a piece for the Sun Rays was not cheap. Basically any $1000 laptop was more powerful, without the need for a crazy powerful Sun server. The experience of taking out my ID card, walking down the hall to another cubicle and popping it in and getting my session was magical. But I did that less than once a week, so I don't think it was overall worth it. The Sun Rays also had a pretty crappy LCD, about 1-2 years behind the SoTA.
It was a cool idea. It will keep coming back again and again. But at Sun's price points around the early 2000s, it was a loser, and I actually agree with the market in this instance. Sun Ray was a flop.
I think it was not a technology that should have been designed for people actually doing series work. But for things like kiosk, self service terminals, and stuff like that.
And yes of course, a rack of commodity servers should how powered the server side, as this was a task that could be scaled vertically quite well.
The also didn't use the cheapest possible Sun Ray terminals, they used their internal developed embedded Sparc chip, not mass produced ARM chips.
grahamlee · · focus · HN ↗
titzer · · focus · HN ↗
It was a cool idea. It will keep coming back again and again. But at Sun's price points around the early 2000s, it was a loser, and I actually agree with the market in this instance. Sun Ray was a flop.
panick21_ · · focus · HN ↗
And yes of course, a rack of commodity servers should how powered the server side, as this was a task that could be scaled vertically quite well.
The also didn't use the cheapest possible Sun Ray terminals, they used their internal developed embedded Sparc chip, not mass produced ARM chips.