26 Sep
2000
26 Sep
'00
5:05 a.m.
From: Bill Pechter <pechter(a)pechter.dyndns.org>
Well, I think he was figuring the killer app was a smart terminal device
(PDT or better with small local hard disk) and a fast network connection
to a timesharing operation (kind of like a cross between Compuserve
and a kind of Network Utility Company which would maintain the storage
and apps, fix bugs and supply you with a service.
This would keep Joe User from having to become their own System
Admin/System Manager/Development Programmer/Hardware Support Tech.
I think the Oracle Network Computer venture and NetAppliance was close
to what Ken Olson would've envisioned. ('Course it would've been Vax
Clusters on the server end...)
You're in good company:
Keep in mind I had little touch with leadign edge tech back
in 70/71 when I made my school choices. I was fixing tube
based equippment mostly and an IC was rather crude stuff.
"There is no reason for any individual to
have a computer in their
home."
-- Ken Olson, President of DEC, World Future Society
Convention, 1977
In one sense he was right but the desktop and killer apps
like spreadsheets and user friendly databases were phase
one and new. It took more than that to get the kitchen
computer real. The internet or more correctly the ubiqious
communications it represents was phase two.
difference -- the beauty of UNIX is it's
simple; and the beauty of VMS
is that it's all there.
-- Ken Olsen, president of DEC, DECWORLD Vol. 8 No. 5, 1984
Around the same time I got a Unix the unsystem teeshirt. UNIX in
a no symbol (red slashed circle). By time it was getting somewhat
worn AT&T made unix a DOD standard and Ultrix was hot soon after.
Allison
--
bpechter(a)monmouth.com | Microsoft: Where do you want to go today?
| Linux: Where do you want to go tomorrow?
| BSD: Are you guys coming, or what?