IBM to push network computers..............good story
Friday October 31 3:55 PM EST
IBM to press network computer standards
By Richard Melville
NEW YORK, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Seeking to create a bigger market for its network computers, International Business Machines Corp will offer competitors the software it uses to link network stations to servers.
IBM's move is a bid to establish an industry standard and avoid repeating costly mistakes it made in the past when it favored its own, proprietary technology in personal computers.
''Unlike the old IBM, we're not on a track to try to corner the market,'' IBM Network Computer division General Manager Bob Dies said in a telephone interview.
''Instead, our goal is to make the functionality we already have fairly ubiquitous,'' he said. ''What will happen then is, because we'll be knocking away the inhibitors, hopefully the market will grow faster.''
Several companies, including Sun Microsystems Inc (SUNW) and Oracle Corp (ORCL), have been vocal advocates of the network computer, or NC, approach. If accepted, the technology could mean competition for Microsoft Corp's (MSFT) Windows and Intel Corp's (INTC) microprocessor technology on the corporate desktop.
Dies said IBM will pursue two approaches. In some cases it will offer code to standards boards, where, if accepted, it would be available for free, industry use. In other cases, IBM will license code.
''We'll turn major pieces of it over to standards boards and there are things down the road we might overly invest in which I would sell,'' Dies said. ''Some people will be more than willing to pay us for it. It sure beats trying to write it.''
Industry analysts have estimated IBM could ship up to 100,000 network stations in 1997, a paltry figure when compared to personal computer sales but a considerable headstart in the young universe of NCs.
Any transition to NCs is expected to be slow. A study by market research firm Gartner Group Inc (GART) stated NCs are likely to co-exist with rather than replace personal computers during the first years of adoption.
Users of a network computer - or network station, as IBM refers to its version -- access applications and data through a small device on their desks.
The approach is also referred to as ''thin client,'' because users' machines do not store operating system software, applications or other data. IBM's current model weighs a little more than a pound, excluding the keyboard and monitor.
Upgrades and other changes to the system all take place at the server and require no desk-to-desk attention, a difference that has led some analysts to estimate savings rates of up to 40 percent compared to personal computers.
Microsoft and others have championed an alternate model, termed ''NetPC,'' which relies on stripped-down personal computers administered by networks. IBM has already shelved earlier plans to develop NetPC models.
Partners of Microsoft also plan eventually to deliver Windows-terminals, a setup that will operate under a modified version of the Windows operating system.
IBM, which also has a multi-billion dollar personal computer business, has been nearly invisible in the NC-NetPC debate, but its network computing division stands to benefit greatly if the NC approach succeeds.
A new model of IBM's network station, which makes more complete use of code written in Sun's Java language, is slated for release later this year.
When active, it can be instructed to link to essentially any servers, large or small, IBM or not.
But for now, IBM's software only allows IBM servers to deliver the instructions that ''wake up'' IBM stations, loading them with the various software permissions and preferences related to the user who has logged on to the client device.
With the development glitches worked out in the controlled environment of IBM-only hardware, the company is taking the NC to the broader market.
''Now that the hard part is done, the obvious next step is to roll it out where it's not restricted to IBM servers or IBM clients,'' Dies said.
He said several companies were already working to adapt the software but declined to name them until work progressed further.
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