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Debate on the network computer
Source: DCIs Database and Client-Server World Conference Published: Apr 1997
It was billed as the great debate, and those looking for insight on what the future has in store for client-server witnessed, if nothing else, a little mud-slinging here between some of the industry’s main players.
George Schussel, panel moderator and CEO of DCI, jumped to the chase early by asking: has the PC become too complicated and too expensive to maintain?
“I’m obviously the designated defender of the NC today,” responded Chuck Rozwat, senior vice-president of Oracle Corp.’s database server division. “The PC is here to stay … but you’re going to pay for it.”
Rozwat was referring, of course, to the area of PC maintenance, where logic holds that simple costs less, complex costs more.
Robert Epstein, executive vice-president of Sybase Inc., who played devil’s advocate for most of the session, said the maintenance problem of having too many applications on a PC isn’t so much a technology problem but an issue of self-discipline.
“The cost of deploying an app should be as close to zero as possible,” said Epstein, adding that after you deploy it “you should then have the self-discipline to leave it alone.”
At the same time, Epstein turned to Norm Judah, director of enterprise program management at Microsoft Corp., and said: “I think we all agree that the cost of PCs is too expensive with regards to the software,” referring specifically to each, more memory-hungry and costly generation of operating system that Microsoft launches.
