Network computers

0006058685@mcimail.com ((0006058685@mcimail.com))
Mon, 16 Oct 1995 11:00:34 -0700


I had lunch with Larry Ellison of Oracle on Thursday. I don't know if I
agree with it, but his theory was that there are a zillion people out there
who need/use computers only for word processing, e-mail, and Web browsing
(there as a fourth app on his list, actually, but I've forgotten it).
Communications, in other words.

For them, a cheaper "network computer" might be perfectly reasonable,
perhaps even so cheap that it can be bundled into a communication service,
like telephones used to be.

He dismissed privacy concerns in his usual comical style by a spoof that
equated a network service to electricity, which is also centrally controlled
(actually, POTS -- voice telephone service -- would have been a better
analogy).

Personally, I think that, even if he's right, he has the wrong hardware
design. I'd rather see a box without a TV screen, that can be attached to
EXISTING TVs, and swapped or upgraded in the field. I also note that one
would have multiple such boxes in the home.

Finally, I note that, while it is necessary for many homes to have ONE
"real" computer each, do they really need MULTIPLE "real" computers, or
would one real computer and a bunch of network computers do the job?

Or is the problem mooted by the rapid "obsolescence" of "real" computers?

Curt Monash, Ph.D.
Not a hardware analyst
Monash Information Services
cmonash@mcimail.com

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