I was wondering how come I don't see many businesses using thin clients (workstations), like this one:
Are they an outdated technology? Any cons or reasons why not to use them? What is the best alternative?
Two areas where I still see thin clients dominate over full-fledged PC's, are the healthcare industry (doctors/dentists/optometrists) and also in support centers. In both cases, these clients are acting as dumb terminals, serving up browser-based application software that needs to be ubiquitous across the organization.
Definitely not. Thin clients are more of a concept than a hard fast technology. Whereas 10 years ago we might have a server which booted thin clients using a remote disk, it is more prevalent now to see thin clients used in the context of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. Conceptually this is the same as a thin client. Look at Wyse terminals used with Citrix XenDesktop. Wyse & Citrix