The history of WTS makes a fascinating read. It's paying for it that's the tough part.
VNC was originally written to support thin client devices, as was WTS. So there are some parallels. Microsoft's RDP (remote desktop protocol) was cobbled together as an alternative to the Citrix ICA protocol. Citrix is the product that started serving up multiple Windows desktops across the network.
Citrix actually licensed the entire Windows NT 3.51 operating system, and released their own custom version of NT as their first successful product (the first version was for OS/2). Microsoft naturally wanted to get in on the game, but for whatever reason, they couldn't do the usual "embrace and extend" thing. So starting with NT 4.0, Microsoft stopped licensing the OS, but instead worked with Citrix to include the basic multiple desktop technology with a special version of NT, giving birth to WTS. WTS used the IP-only RDP protocol, and had no support for file transfer, encryption or having multiple clients per session etc. That left a market for Citrix and ICA.
The ostensible reason for going the thin client route is to reduce the cost of computing, but when you add up the costs of a typical Citrix installation it becomes clear that it's a huge money pit. Even for WTS alone, you need no fewer than three separate Windows licenses per seat -- 1 Windows NT/2000 Server license, one Windows NT/2000
Workstation license for the remote desktop, and finally one Windows license for the client device. Technically you only need a single workstation license if you're running NT/2000 on the client, but if that's the case, you're not doing thin client, and therefore are not saving any money on the client side anyway.
In theory, all of the administrative chores are supposed to be consolidated in the datacenter, so a WTS or Citrix shop will be able to cut back dramatically on field staff. And since it's "just Windows", the existing NOS admins are supposed to absorb the extra workload without complaint. The reality is much different. Because there's simply no facility to work on user registries, except by being logged in as that user, the support role is remarkably similar -- the support tech has to physically track down the user, have the user log in and then relenquish the session, and troubleshoot at that user's desk. Because Windows lacks many of the bulk administration tools that UNIX admins take for granted, even server-side work involves a lot of hand work, either to administer directly, or to set up an automation system from scratch.
In the end, Citrix and/or WTS costs about 4X as much as the traditional PC-LAN setup, and is about half as efficient. Just in case anybody out there has warm fuzzies about playing with the technology...
You are false data.