Redhat fedora developer devel list archive has the first article on a new “philosophy” of Linux builds that they term Stateless Linux.
This build of Linux allows for a server to provide application and data services to all other Linux clients connected to it. Not just any clients, but specific Stateless Clients. When the clients are connected to the server, the applications run from the server and user data is provided from the server. However, the really cool feature kicks in when the user is not connected to the server using the client machine.
The Stateless Client will automatically work in offline mode for both applications and data.
The client has 2 root partitions, one mounted as read-only and controlled by server, and one that is used in offline mode for any changes.
When the user comes back online, the partition differences are synchronized by the server based on user access rights.
Having started down the path of Windows SBS 2003 installs for multiple clients, the idea of a stateless client OS makes a lot of sense. This is Linux. This is cool.
Of course, a more detailed review would happen after I install and play with this for a few days.
(there goes the weekend, honey!)
Above was my initial take on this, you can read a fuller and more detailed article on eWeek.