Question

What are the differences in philosophy of fat vs thin clients? Why select one instead of the other? Please do not copy and paste or simply copy another's answer.

Answer 1

The following table depicts the difference between fat clients and thin clients. The fat client is also known as thick clients.

S.no	Fat Clients	Thin Clients
1.	Fat clients have storage device like hard disks.	Thin clients don't have any storage device like hard disks.
2.	In fat clients, the user works independently on his or her local computer/machine.	In thin clients, the user works independently on the server.
3,	Processing in fat clients is faster than thin clients because they work on an independent system.	In thin clients, the processing is a bit slow as data is processed on the servers.
4.	In fat clients, the data is stored on the system or local computer itself.	In thin clients, the data is stored on the server itself.
5.	In the fat system, there isn't much need for having big and expensive servers as the use of the servers is minimal in this type of system.	In the thin system, there is much need of having big and expensive servers as the use of the servers is maximum in this type of system.
6.	In fat system, each and everyone requires individual machines to work.	In a thin system, everyone doesn't require individual machines as all work on the server.
7.	In the fat system, if any updation is made on the local machine then it has to be shared or done with all the other machines so that all have the same data on their machines.	In the thin system, all the users have access to the same data files as they all are stored on the server.
8.	In this system, local machines need to be regularly updated and maintained.	In this system, the server needs to be regularly updated and maintained.
9.	Maintenance cost is high in the fat system as all the local machines need to be maintained in this system.	Maintenance cost is low in this system as the only server needs to be maintained. Hence in comparison, the cost expenses are less in this system.
10.	In a fat system, more importance/emphasis are laid on the local machines of the user.	In this system, more importance/emphasis are laid on the server of the system.
11.	There are more security issues in the fat client system.	There are fewer security issues in the thin client system.

Selection of fat or thin client depends upon the organisation's structure, the type of work performed by the organisation. If the organisation needs to perform huge amount of processing of the data, the user wants to work on the operating system and a huge number of softwares, organisational size is small then the thick client is the most suitable option.

If the user wants to use the terminal, have a large organisational structure, have less utility of the softwares then a thin client is the best option.

Hence depending upon the utility a suitable choice can be made by the user.