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PCWeek on the Influence of the PC and the Internet

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the going-retrospective-at-the-end dept.

tmlrv writes " PCWeek has a series of articles on how the PC and the Internet have affected modern computing. Noting the source, its not really surprising the articles are PC centric (PC, as in IBM/compatible Personal Computer) and gives way too much credit to the PC for the spread of the Internet. But what I found interesting was that the part UNIX played and its importance is not even mentioned with the implication that the Internet was a totally PC driven phenomena. "

2 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. What if the PC never happened? by apsmith · · Score: 4
    What I thought was most interesting was the page wondering What if the PC had never happened? -- a quote:


    With the earlier emergence of "just turn it on" devices, such as the
    Palm PDA from 3Com Corp.'s Palm Computing Division or Sun
    Microsystems Inc.'s SunRay thin client, we might have avoided vast
    investments in training users to administer PC operating systems.
    Entire software subindustries-such as multitasking shells and system
    management utilities-might never have come to pass. Enterprise IT
    managers would have been able to concentrate on business process
    improvement instead of being bogged down in end-user
    handholding.


    and they attribute the reason this didn't happen to AT&T's not taking packet switching seriously enough. An interesting thought. T1 circuits have worked over regular copper for a long time now - on the other hand, I don't think routers and switches were up to the capacity demands that would have been needed to do anything close to an adequate job 20 years ago. But it's definitely an interesting thought.
    --

    Energy: time to change the picture.

  2. Re:He who writes the history books... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4

    From http://www.yip.org/hacking.html:

    Internet®: (1) A network of computers established by the US military at the beginning of the Cold War, with the hope that in the event of nuclear war, members of the military could continue to view porn, play Quake and trade tips on how to make money quickly. (2) That icon on Windows 95 that takes you to the Dilbert page.

    Microsoft: The company that invented the Internet in 1995.

    Netscape: The company that invented the Internet in 1992.

    I hope that clears everything up for everyone.