Another disadvantage is that central computing relies heavily on the quality of administration and resources provided to its users.
Should the central computer be inadequately supported by any means (e.g. size of home directories, problems regarding administration), then your usage will suffer greatly.
Early text terminals used electro-mechanical teletypewriters, but these were replaced by cathode ray tube displays (as found in 20th century televisions and computers).
[1] Thin clients have been used for many years by businesses to reduce total cost of ownership, while web applications are becoming more popular because they can potentially be used on many types of computing device without any need for software installation.
In addition, mainframes are still being used for some mission-critical applications, such as payroll, or for processing day-to-day account transactions in banks.
By centralizing processing and storage on powerful server hardware located in a data center, rather than in a local office, it relieves organizations of the many responsibilities in owning and maintaining an information technology system.