Jim Choate sez:
Forwarded message:
Subject: Re: The future will be easy to use From: dlv@bwalk.dm.com (Dr. Dimitri Vulis) Date: Mon, 27 Nov 95 21:28:05 EST
One thing that David didn't mention is security add-ons to the "network computers" that are supposed to be rolled out within the next few months -- the successors to X terminals, $500 boxes with a good screen/sound, cheap cpu, and a few megs of ram and flash memory to hold a web browser. I expect some folks to make a good living by writing add-ons (including crypto add-ons) to these gizmos.
Don't hold your breath. The current market surveys say that there is no market for them. Check out this weeks PC Week or Mac Week, as they both have several articles discussing this. Bottem line is that the under $1000 computer seems to have no future either in industry or the home.
I agree and disagree. ;-) The "internet terminal", or "internet appliance", as it is sometimes called, is IMHO, worthless. Would you write and send e-mail if you had no way of archiving it? Would you use "net-quicken", if it required all your data to be stored on a shared disk at Intuit? (There was an interview on NPR 11/17 where this was touted as "the next big thing"!) On the other hand, I believe that a <$1000 computer would be a big seller.
From a marketing point of view, there's just something about a price tag with three digits left of the decimal point, even if they're all nines :-) The tough part is making it usable, and making some money on it. [ I've got this 386-40, with 1 MB RAM and a 40MB hd, see... ]
Realisticaly, who in their right mind would buy a diskless workstation to connect to Internet?
No one.
You certainly wouldn't do crypto on it because it has to boot from somewhere else and this leaves all kinds of security holes.
Actually, I think the plan is to boot from ROM.
Anyone who bases their business on this technology won't have a business.
I agree. -- Marshall Marshall Clow Aladdin Systems mclow@mailhost2.csusm.edu "Eternal vigilance is the price of PostScript" -- MacUser Jan 96 DTP and Graphics column