After the combination of an all-day briefing by Oracle and a trip down to the Netscape Developers' Conference, I've heard enough praise for the Network Computer to almost make me a believer. Almost. Here's a couple of questions I have to get answered before I can get as psyched about the NC as, say, Oracle's Larry Ellison or Netscape's Marc Andreessen.

Why is it that the NC is always a great idea for someone else? The model usually held up is the data entry clerk, chained to a 3270 terminal and surrounded by a roomful of registration cards. While I think a Web server acting as the central focus to a truly universally distributed application is a great idea, no way am I going to cough up my OmniBook. And honestly, I haven't met anyone else who is really ready to give up his or her PC, either.

And despite their constant berating of the PC architecture, I don't see Ellison and Sun's Scott McNealy giving up their systems, either.

The ability to work in a disconnected mode and replicate your work up to the big server is a compelling way to operate. Being able to toss the latest cool application onto your hard drive probably has as much to do with introducing innovation into a company as do all those overpriced management books.

As far as all those dumb terminals being tossed out in favor of the NC, I'm not too sure of that one, either. Dumb terminal applications have survived several computer revolutions for one compelling reason: They work.

Yes, character-based screens are ugly, and yes, the strange command lines require some getting used to, but once they are up and running they tend to stay that way--not something you can always say for PCs running in the client/server model. You are going to need a couple of very visible, sturdy NC applications running for about a year before you get a lot of developers to sign off on the idea that the dumb terminal is truly dead.

The one application that may prove to be the killer app for NCs is corporate database messaging. At the Oracle8 briefing, Ellison was at his most persuasive when arguing that the corporate database and the corporate messaging infrastructure should be one and the same. For better or worse, many of us are E- mail addicted. We're uneasy if we've been away from the E-mail stream for more than a couple of hours. Being able to access that mail securely over the Net at airports or hotels via NCs could go a long way to proving their viability.

And the killer price for an NC may be zero. As Andreessen said during his Developers' Conference keynote, just as the price of a cell phone has gone to zero if you buy into a service provider, some consumer electronics companies are trying to come up with a similar scheme for NCs.

Zero--now, that is a price that even I will try.

Comments? Contact Eric Lundquist at eric_lundquist@zd.com.

Source: PC Week