Some aspects are the same. Hardware prices still rival those of low-end PCs. And the vendors still promise lower total cost of ownership along with simpler and more reliable network management. This one basically paints the screen and leaves virtually all the processing chores to the server. And Sun has better integrated its thin client into the existing infrastructure, a very sensible move.
Network computing makes a great deal of sense.
It always did. This is more crucial than ever in the emerging era of interrelated intranets and extranets. The MCI WorldCom data outage a month ago was a wake-up call to people who had failed to back up their networks as assiduously as they back up their data. More than ever, safety is a nonoptional feature. Recent news reports have described one security hole after another in a variety of products, and not just Microsoft's.