So in other words MS has not been able to give users a realistic way of doint it. Being able and being usable are two different things. Also let me ask you can you run a network install to say an apple box? what about solaris? MS's implementation in addition to 'being slower than snail snot' was also not *portable*. Beyond the fact that MS never tried to optimize office for that behavior, and beyond the fact is was not portable to other operating systems, it was based on MS's network protocols which were never really kind to a network. An implementation in HTTP would resolve all of these.
That's one of the reasons the world moved to fully functional desktop machines, so people can still work when the network is having issues.
The major reason this started happening was because people wanted PC's in their home, and bandwidth at the time *IF* you could even get it was not enough to do anything useful. once people were running stand alone at home the needed applications. Now the glass is out there for people to use and while this may not catch on in the home to ignore client server in a corporate setting because it so 'ancient' would not be a wise decision.
No they've done it the right way, the problem is the very concept blows. There's an Apple version of Office so they couuld to it there, MS isn't interested in Solaris so even if they went through the web that would be no. Actually the MS implementation is very *portable*, they never optimized for it because there's a very small section of the market interested in it and it wasn't worth the money. Actually it's network generic, just not OS generic, goes fine over TCPIP, if your Windows (or Apple) machine can get to the network share it'll work.
You're not making sense, if the dsktop was driven by the home market, and thin client doesn't take off at home, then it's not going to take off elsewhere. Actually desktops took off because they were cheaper, less need for big iron and more functional if something happened between the user and the core machine. It's the same thing that's been keeping this thin client rebirth from happening, desktops are more generally useful and will continue to be so.