My point was the mainframe's heyday is OVER.
Dont you believe it, what a mainframe looks like might be changing, but the Internet is actually making feasible a resurgence of the mainframe concept, if you would define that as a large central server powering lots of dumb terminals. That, in effect, is what this system is, if you count the browser you are using as the virtual dumb terminal.
Even Mr Gates talked about 'superservers' centralised in the network, only last week. What are they if not mainframes by another name? Of course, physically they might be a cluster of DEll systems instead of an IBM or an HP, but thats good news (for us longs, not you of course).
However, there is still lots of room left for smaller servers, and PC's. Some people say that the PC is powerful enough, but then again, they have always said that. AFter all, 640k was always going to be enough wasnt it, Mr Gates told us so.
You can't run todays games on a PC more than 3 or 4 years old, the same will be true in 3 or 4 years time for todays PC's however high end they might appear at the moment.
And to run full motion video, DVD, high speed comms, games with more and more demanding graphics and intelligence, more discs, new devices, not to mention sheer software 'bloat', there will, IMHO, continue to be a need to upgrade for many years to come. Not to mention the wave of NT (Sorry, Windows 2000) and Y2K-inspired buying over the next 18-months.
I'll bettcha that Win2000 uses more resources than NT4, what do you think? And what will that do to PC/server sales?
JoeC |
