Not a stupid question at all, since terminology has been shifting over the decades.
Back in the early 1990s, the original client/server generally meant all application code (logic and UI) on the client computer, and all the data on the server. So a very fat client.
Database stored procedures (i.e. some logic on the server) only arrived on the scene later during that time, because the original architecture of all code on the client caused performance nightmares. But don’t get me started on the trials and tribulations of early stored procedures. They often caused more project turmoil rather than smoothen things out. — Partly because they weren’t good languages yet, partly because of amplifying developer vs. dba conflicts.
Did row-level security already exist in some databases at that time? Otherwise this must have been quite limiting.
A modern analogue might be something like premature distributed computing.
But you’re right in saying that the original client/server had all of the UI and business logic on a very fat client - and the server only served the data over very low bandwith networks.
A modern analogue might be something like premature distributed computing
A modern analogue might be n, where n is more familiar to the composer of this, or, the source of information determining the production of this text is most familiar with n, where n does not include the word premature
I would interpret it to mean any networked or Internet-based application that has both client- and server-side logic, which obviously isn't anything special in 2020, but it sounds like you're referring to something else that would now be considered outdated?