Most of the attention out there at modifying i-openers has been towards Linux, but a lot of the information is applicable to any x86 operating system, really. *NIX systems are just easier to install and get working, since the hardware setup is weird.
Well I mean think about it.. how many of us have more than one PC in our home? How many of us would rather have a single PC with a handful of "front-end" appliances scattered in convenient places?
Centralization of data is what we're moving to. This is why things like Hotmail are so successful -- easy access to e-mail regardless of where you're connected. I just bought a couple of i-openers (see the Slashdot article a few days ago) that I'm converting to cheap X terminals.
Some attempts to do this on a large scale (WinTerms and "Thin" clients) haven't really caught on, mainly because of the still high cost of the clients and the fact that it's not cost effective to switch. But who's to say that won't change?
Which leaves us with the question: what type of platform do we want supporting the network devices we connect? I don't think I've seen NT or any "recent" OS compete favorably on these grounds, which leaves us with OSes like Unix, still being developed as fast as the technology does.
Of course, that's not to say that other operating systems won't possibly step up and smack Unix out of the arena entirely, but we can't bet on that..
There's no reason to "convert" most of our existing Internet/networking infrastructure to anything else in the forseeable future. I agree with the prediction that things will end up moving more towards centralized computer resources, and lesser-equipped but ubiquitous terminals to access those resources, but Unix will still be there in some fashion.
Who's to say Unix won't be the OS that drives the appliances?
Slashdot Mirror
Most of the attention out there at modifying i-openers has been towards Linux, but a lot of the information is applicable to any x86 operating system, really. *NIX systems are just easier to install and get working, since the hardware setup is weird.
i-opener-linux.net and a FAQ.
Well I mean think about it.. how many of us have more than one PC in our home? How many of us would rather have a single PC with a handful of "front-end" appliances scattered in convenient places?
Centralization of data is what we're moving to. This is why things like Hotmail are so successful -- easy access to e-mail regardless of where you're connected. I just bought a couple of i-openers (see the Slashdot article a few days ago) that I'm converting to cheap X terminals.
Some attempts to do this on a large scale (WinTerms and "Thin" clients) haven't really caught on, mainly because of the still high cost of the clients and the fact that it's not cost effective to switch. But who's to say that won't change?
Which leaves us with the question: what type of platform do we want supporting the network devices we connect? I don't think I've seen NT or any "recent" OS compete favorably on these grounds, which leaves us with OSes like Unix, still being developed as fast as the technology does.
Of course, that's not to say that other operating systems won't possibly step up and smack Unix out of the arena entirely, but we can't bet on that..
There's no reason to "convert" most of our existing Internet/networking infrastructure to anything else in the forseeable future. I agree with the prediction that things will end up moving more towards centralized computer resources, and lesser-equipped but ubiquitous terminals to access those resources, but Unix will still be there in some fashion.
Who's to say Unix won't be the OS that drives the appliances?