There is a good article in this month's "Internet" magazine on
network computers (fat server, thin client).
It seems to me that the idea in principle is fine. It will not take
off, in my opinion, until the price of the netbox comes down to
about 100 dollars or so, given the fact that you can buy now a
decent P5 for about 500 UKP.
Once we all have our homes wired up with 100Mbs lines (c.1998), or
the forthcoming cable modem (1997), it would seem unreasonable to
have the internet access integrated into other home appliances (Bill
Gates' vision of 800 telecom sats circling the globe). Couple this
with the global telephone exchange where you just have a little dish
and no country codes, then the world will never be the same again,
at least from communications point of view.
It is going to evolve, no doubt. Practice computing will probably
be something completely different in few years time when it finally
catches up with the quite revolution going on with a whole host of
client software and applications.
More of that later!
Al Hakim Who Has Bought His Head
_______________________________________
Ahmad Risk MB BCh
business tel: +44 1737 240022 fax: +44 1737 244660
home tel: +44 1293 782255
http://www.cybermedic.org/
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