A company called Radixs has come out with a new operating system that makes it possible to turn a wireless handheld into a sort of “thin client”, with all the actual heavy lifting being done by the server. The idea behind MXI, which can run programs for Windows, Linux, or Palm, is that a PDA or a cellphone would be able to access all sorts of complex applications that would otherwise strain its slower processor and more limited memory, but it would also mean that you have to have a constant, and reliable, wireless connection back to the host server, and we all know how sadly uncommon those can be. And frankly, we’re a little disappointed that CNET’s reporter just took at face value the company’s claims that it can run non-native programs as smoothly and quickly as those installed right on the handheld. Eventually, something like this is almost certainly inevitable, but for right now, we can’t see many people opting for a setup like this when they can just have most of what they need there locally on their handheld.
