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Debate Focuses On NC Merits
Source: Newsbytes News Published: Apr 1997
In the press and speakers’ room before the session billed as “The Great Debate: Has The Internet Killed Client/Server?” George Schussel, whose Digital Consulting Inc. runs the Database and Client/Server World conference going on this week, was overheard telling some panelists that “The point of this debate is just to have….fun.” They did that, though they didn’t talk very much about the impact of the Internet on client/server.
The session concentrated instead on an admittedly related topic: the relative merits of network computers (NCs) versus conventional personal computers. With a panel including participants from Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp., and Netscape Communications Corp. — all of which have strong positions on this subject — the discussion was bound to get entertaining.
The exchange that got the biggest audience reaction started when Schussel, acting as moderator, asked “What value will a used NC be?” Norm Judah, director of enterprise program management at Microsoft, replied: “A doorstop?” And Netscape Vice-President Kevin Fitzgerald, picking up on the theme of PC obsolescence that ran through the debate, retorted that “It’ll be a cheaper one.”
