Thin clients

MSN TV (formerly WebTV) was a web access product consisting of a thin client device that used a television for display (instead of using a computer monitor), and the online service that supported it. The original WebTV device design and service were developed by WebTV Networks, Inc., a company started in 1995. The WebTV product was announced in July 1996 and later released on September 18, 1996. In April 1997, the company was purchased by Microsoft Corporation and in July 2001, was rebranded to MSN TV and absorbed into MSN.

Esprit Systems Inc. was a vendor of computer terminal products created as a spin-off from Hazeltine Corporation's terminal division in January 1983. The name refers to the Hazeltine Esprit terminal, which division management felt the parent company was not properly marketing. The company sold a variety of terminals, adding other computer peripherals with their purchase of Percom in 1984. The new company quickly ran into financial difficulty and sold 49% of the company to its primary Taiwanese manufacturer, ADI Corporation, in March 1986, followed by a majority of purchase by ADI in 1988. By the early 2000s, their primary products were Windows CE-based thin client terminals. The last updates to the company web page were in 2003.

ThinCan is a thin client manufactured by Estonian electronic design start-up Artec Group. The ThinCan remained relatively unknown outside Estonia until 2006, when a recent ThinCan iteration was selected as the hardware base for the Linutop, a network appliance that greatly stimulated the market for lightweight computing platforms. The ThinCan was also commercialized by SmartLink under the Revnetek brand name.

VDIworks is an American software company founded in 2008 that provides services like desktop virtualization, desktop as a service (DaaS), networking, PCoIP and cloud computing.

Desktop virtualization is a software technology that separates the desktop environment and associated application software from the physical client device that is used to access it.

In computer networking, a thin client, sometimes called slim client or lean client, is a simple (low-performance) computer that has been optimized for establishing a remote connection with a server-based computing environment. They are sometimes known as network computers, or in their simplest form as zero clients. The server does most of the work, which can include launching software programs, performing calculations, and storing data. This contrasts with a rich client or a conventional personal computer; the former is also intended for working in a client–server model but has significant local processing power, while the latter aims to perform its function mostly locally.

ClearCube is a computer systems manufacturer based in Austin, Texas, owned by parent company ClearCube Holdings. The company became known for its blade PC products; it has since expanded its offerings to include desktop virtualization and VDI. It was founded in 1997 by Andrew Heller (former IBM Fellow) and Barry Thornton as Vicinity Systems.

Chip PC Technologies is a developer and manufacturer of thin client solutions and management software for server-based computing; where in a network architecture applications are deployed, managed and can be fully executed on the server.

The Sun Ray is a stateless thin client computer (and associated software) aimed at corporate environments, that was originally introduced by Sun Microsystems in September 1999 and discontinued by Oracle Corporation in 2014. It features a smart card reader and several models featured an integrated flat panel display.

Teradici Corporation was a privately held software company founded in 2004, which was acquired by HP Inc. in October 2021. Teradici initially developed a protocol (PCoIP) for compressing and decompressing images and sound when remotely accessing blade servers, and implemented it in hardware. This technology was later expanded to thin clients/zero clients for general Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. Teradici's protocol or hardware is used by HP, Dell-Wyse, Amulet Hotkey, Samsung, Amazon Web Services, Fujitsu, and VMware.