Apple Networking

A network computer is a lightweight computer system that operates exclusively via a network connection. As such, it does not have secondary storage such as a hard disk drive – it boots off the network, but runs applications locally, using its own CPU and RAM. more...

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This set NCs as distinct from terminals, which act as a client for an application server.

During the mid to late 1990s, some commentators and industry players such as Larry Ellison of Oracle Corporation, predicted that the network computer would soon take over from desktop PCs, and that many users would use applications loaded via a network instead of having to own a local copy.

So far, this has not happened, and it seems that the network computer "buzz" was either a fad or not ready to happen. The NC can be considered to be another computing paradigm. Just as PCs did not replace mainframes, so NC will not replace PCs. The new technology provides a more appropriate alternative in certain areas and can co-exist with established systems through open standards.

Distinction between NCs and terminals

While NCs were referred to as 'thin clients', the modern usage of this term generally refers to systems in which no local processing occurs. Examples of thin client hardware include VT100 and X terminals. The term 'thin client' also refers to applications, particularly on the world wide web, in which the server performs all processing, and the user interacts only with a HTML representation of the program via a web browser. The NC was distinct from what would today be referred to a thin client in that the processing was performed locally, using the NC's own hardware, with application and data storage performed via the network.

Whereas the dumb terminals (VT100, X) of yesteryear required both remote file server and remote central processing facilities, the NC promised to allow administrators to reduce costs while still retaining the low per-desktop support costs of centralised computing. In many universities and data centres, PCs are used in a similar configuration, with applications and email stored remotely but executed locally.

History and NCs today

The failure of the NC to impact on the scale predicted by Larry Ellison may have been caused by a number of factors. Firstly, the idea could simply have been ahead of its time. At the NC's launch in 1996, the typical home Internet user was using only a dialup connection via a modem. The common 28.8 kbit/s speeds would simply not be sufficient for the delivery of executable content.

The world wide web itself was not considered mainstream until its breakout year in 1998. Prior to this, very few Internet service providers advertised in mainstream press (at least outside of the USA), and knowledge of the Internet and the web was limited. This could have held back uptake of what would be seen as a very niche device with no (then) obvious appeal.

Read more at Wikipedia.org