Client (computing)

A client is a computer system that accesses a (remote) service on another computer by some kind of network. The term was first applied to devices that were not capable of running their own stand-alone programs, but could interact with remote computers via a network. These dumb terminals were clients of the time-sharing mainframe computer.

The client-server model is still used today on the Internet, where a user may connect to a service operating on a remote system through the internet protocol suite. Web browsers are clients that connect to web servers and retrieve web pages for display. Most people use e-mail clients to retrieve their e-mail from their internet service provider's mail storage servers. Online chat uses a variety of clients, which vary depending on the chat protocol being used.

Increasingly, existing large client applications are being switched to websites, making the browser a sort of universal client. This avoids the hassle of downloading a large piece of software onto any computer you want to use the application on. An example of this is the rise of webmail.

Types of client

Clients are generally classified as either "thick clients" or "thin clients", although more recently there has been a proliferation of other classifications.

Thick clients

A thick client (also known as a fat client or rich client) is a client that performs the bulk of any data processing operations itself, and relies on the server it is associated with primarily for data storage. Although the term usually refers to software, it can also apply to a network computer that has relatively strong processing abilities.

Starting around 2003 the term "rich client" has taken on a different meaning than thick client. It has come to mean a hybrid of 'thick' and 'thin', or an architecture where the amount of client vs. server CPU utilization is more balanced. The client may look and behave like a thick client, while being fully network based like a thin client architecture. See Rich Internet Application and Rich Client Platform.

Thin clients

A thin client is a minimal client. Thin clients utilize as few resources on the host computer as possible. A thin client's job is generally just to graphically display information provided by an application server, which performs the bulk of any required data processing.

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Types of client

Thick clients

Thin clients

See also