The (Video-)NC will come, I believe.
It's window of opportunity is just opening.
The openers are:
1. Important suppliers releasing the hardware: IBM, Sun.
2. Software availability: Corel releasing J-Bridge, Open-J, J-Suite, J-Tools and the Java Web site software, hundreds of thousands of programmers in the world concentrating on Java.
3. The world is getting sick of the MS monopoly, the US Department of Justice demonstrates that. It will learn from the experience and the next choice will be a less monopoly-sensitive platform: the NC.
Can you tell me where you read that Oracle and Sun stopped to support the NC? They might have decided to wait a little with the hardware and concentrate on their base-product: software for the NC..?
Powerful NC
It has to be repeated again and again: the NC is not a dumb terminal. The VNC will be a powerful machine, with all the capabilities of a PC and less trouble for the user, because the configuration and software updating is taken care of from the central level.
If the user decides which server he or she connects to, the content of the software upgrading is controlled by the user too.
The NC can also replace the X-terminals and the dumb terminals without the risk of the PC.
The NC can be relatively cheap because it is not restricted to Intel chips and MS operating systems. Competition lowers the price. But the decisive cost reduction is in the total cost of ownership.
Embedded Java
Sure Java will dominate the market for embedded software. That can be clear from the many publications on this subject since I predicted this on the SI: Corel thread reply #1607 Aug 25 1997.
The Operating system
It no longer will be a forced choice from one or two OS-es.
It is not a matter of Gates or McNealy.
Nice thing about the NC is, it does not depend on an operating system. It can have Unix, Linux, Java-OS, even Windows (if you like trouble), as long as there is a Java Virtual Machine for the OS.
So, you may be right about the animosity between vendors, but it does not really matter a lot. Moreover, they might have learned of the Unix history - and the Java history until now supports this view - that it is better to rest the differences and unite on the common interests in developing a basis on which they can build their competitive products.
There is a second reason why the OS does not matter any more.
Mind you, since the price of the hardware drops dramatically, the operating system or the language are no longer interesting. Soon no one will be able to charge real money for that no more...
Quality, functionality and total cost are decisive
Like with cars, information systems will vary a lot. But it is not the brand of the tyre or the brake pads that triggers the buyer, let alone the fact that it has headlights, a horn, a speedometer. Even the car makers finally agreed where to put the handles for the indicators, the pedals and so on.
It is the total functionality, quality and cost of ownership that is decisive.
Eveline Bernard |
