System type
  Description
Server

A system that provides services to other systems in its network. There are file servers, boot servers, web servers, database servers, license servers, print servers, installation servers, appliance servers, and even servers for particular applications.
Client

 A system that uses remote services from a server. Some clients have limited disk storage capacity, or perhaps none at all. Such clients must rely on remote file systems from a server to function. Diskless systems and appliance systems are examples of this type of client. Other clients might use remote services (such as installation software) from a server.However, they don't rely on a server to function. A stand-alone system is a good example of this type of client. A stand-alone system has its own hard disk that contains the root (/), /usr, and /export/home file systems and swap space.
Appliance

 A network appliance such as the Sun RayTM appliance provides access to applications and the Solaris OS. An appliance gives you centralized server administration, and no client administration or upgrades. Sun Ray appliances also provide hot desking.Hot desking enables you to instantly access your computing session from any appliance in the server group, exactly where you left off. For more information, see http://www.sun.com/products/sunray.

The Sun Ray is a stateless thin-client solution aimed at corporate environments, introduced by Sun Microsystems in September 1999. It features a smartcard reader and is often integrated into a flat panel display.The idea of a stateless desktop was a significant shift from, and the eventual successor to, Sun's earlier line of diskless Java-only desktops, the JavaStation.

In contrast to a thick client, the Sun Ray is a display device, with applications running on a server elsewhere, and the state of the user's session being independent of the display. This enables another notable feature of the Sun Ray, portable sessions: a user can go from one Sun Ray to another and continue their work without closing any programs. With a smartcard, all the user has to do is slip in the card, enter their password when prompted, and they will be presented with their session. Without the smartcard, the procedure is almost identical, except the user must specify their username as well as password to get their session. In either case, if a session does not yet exist, a new one will be created the first time they connect.

Sun Ray clients are connected via an Ethernet network to the Sun Ray Server. Sun Ray Server Software (SRSS) is available for the Solaris Operating System and Linux. Rather than using the X Display protocol, Sun developed a separate secure bitmap-based network protocol, Appliance Link Protocol (ALP), for the Sun Ray system (similar in concept to VNC's Remote FrameBufferprotocol).

As of January 2007, three models are in production:

 Sun Ray Model
  Picture
 Syn Ray 2FS
 http://www.sun.com/sunray/sunray2fs/
  
 Sun Ray 2
http://www.sun.com/sunray/sunray2/
  
 Sun Ray 270
http://www.sun.com/sunray/sunray270/index.xml
  
Przykład podłączenia Sun Ray do pracy przedstawia poniższy rysunek :

Thick Client - originally known as just a "client". Is a computer (client) in client-server architecture networks which typically provides rich functionality independently of the central server. A fat client still requires at least periodic connection to a network or central server, but is often characterised by the ability to perform many functions without that connection. In contrast, a thin client generally does as little processing as possible and relies on accessing the server each time input data needs to be processed or validated.

Thin Client - (sometimes also called a lean or slim client) is a client computer or client software in client-serverarchitecture networks which depends primarily on the central server for processing activities, and mainly focuses on conveying input and output between the user and the remote server. In contrast, a thick or fat client does as much processing as possible and passes only data for communications and storage to the server.
Charecteristic of system types :