Terminal Services / Thin Clients

Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2, formerly known as Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008 and previous versions, is one of the components of Microsoft Windows (both server and client versions) that allows a user to access applications and data on a remote computer over a network, using the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Terminal Services is Microsoft’s implementation of thin-client terminal server computing, where Windows applications, or even the entire desktop of the computer running Terminal Services, are made accessible to a remote client machine.

A thin client (sometimes also called a lean or slim client) is a computer or a computer program which depends heavily on some other computer (its server) to fulfill its traditional computational roles. This stands in contrast to the traditional fat client, a computer designed to take on these roles by itself. The exact roles assumed by the server may vary, from providing data persistence (for example, for diskless nodes) to actual information processing on the client’s behalf.

Stands for “Structured Query Language,” and can be pronounced as either “sequel” or “S-Q-L.” It is a query language used for accessing and modifying information in a database. Some common SQL commands include “insert,” “update,” and “delete.” The language was first created by IBM in 1975 and was called SEQUEL for “Structured English Query Language.” Since then, it has undergone a number of changes, many coming from Oracle products.

Today, SQL is commonly used for Web database development and management. Though SQL is now considered to be a standard language, there are still a number of variations of it, such as mSQL and mySQL. By using a scripting language like PHP, SQL commands can be executed when a Web page loads. This makes it possible to create dynamic Web pages that can display different information each time they load.