>I've read a litttle bit about this and it sounds interesting.
>Has anyone used it or seen it used?
>Any assessments?

I've seen them used at various businesses such as car dealerships, gyms etc. running vertical-market or custom apps. I've taken a look at them a couple of times for small business clients, but none have bought any.

The big draws seem to be manageability, lockdown capability and security - you're basically returning to the mainframe/terminals model.

They're a hard sell to small business owners unless they, too, have a line-of-business app they need locked down, and to which they're willing to dedicate the thin client hardware. Even if they do that, in many cases employees that need to do other things will get a general-purpose PC as well. And if you're going to do that, Terminal Services starts to look attractive rather than a thin client.

Another thing is that thin clients haven't caught on to the extent that they have really benefited from economies of scale. A typical thin client, despite weak hardware is not very much, if any, less expensive than a basic PC, and may even be more expensive. The basic PC will be much more powerful and flexible, it's a really tough sell to small business owners to get them to pay more and get less. Then, you need a fairly strong server with sometimes-costly software to support the thin clients, and then pay to get it all set up and maintained. At least for many small businesses, the total cost to get everything up and running is not attractive compared to a conventional network of PCs plus a server (e.g. SBS), with the latter you can add a separate TS later if you want or need it.

I see thin or zero clients as a niche - they do have their place, but that place is fairly limited.