While I haven't seen the full text of the speech, I think the article makes the assumption that a PC is a desktop machine running windows.
If we change the definition of PC slightly, I think Sun has a point.
If pretty much the same "PC" hardware is running Unix, we call it a workstation, if it is running some custom OS and is hooked up to a game controller, we call it a game console. So does the hardware really add to the identity of the "PC"?
I think Sun probably means that the local OS/applications could easily be replaced by network-hosted services. (note I didn't say server-hosted...)
Remember Sun's "the network is the computer"? They were dreaming then, but now we are all waking up from the Wintel paradigm into the Google/Verizon one.
Would it be too hard for Google to add some spreadsheet and document editing functionality to Gmail? Would a simple OS that allows a user to run something similar to gmail not be a whole lot easier to manage than windows/linux?
Current server-based systems like Citrix don't really provide a significant benefit because they have to deal with the tremendous bandwidth/compute overheads of traditional OSs and applications.
Adding the significant costs of these software dinosaurs into the equation leads to a pretty rosy picture for a Google/Verizon/AMD machine that could be used anywhere, anytime...
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It could be OIL!!! All we need now is to find some destitute tribesmen to give it to and then spend the next hundred years kissing their ass!
While I haven't seen the full text of the speech, I think the article makes the assumption that a PC is a desktop machine running windows.
If we change the definition of PC slightly, I think Sun has a point.
If pretty much the same "PC" hardware is running Unix, we call it a workstation, if it is running some custom OS and is hooked up to a game controller, we call it a game console. So does the hardware really add to the identity of the "PC"?
I think Sun probably means that the local OS/applications could easily be replaced by network-hosted services. (note I didn't say server-hosted...)
Remember Sun's "the network is the computer"? They were dreaming then, but now we are all waking up from the Wintel paradigm into the Google/Verizon one.
Would it be too hard for Google to add some spreadsheet and document editing functionality to Gmail?
Would a simple OS that allows a user to run something similar to gmail not be a whole lot easier to manage than windows/linux?
Current server-based systems like Citrix don't really provide a significant benefit because they have to deal with the tremendous bandwidth/compute overheads of traditional OSs and applications.
Adding the significant costs of these software dinosaurs into the equation leads to a pretty rosy picture for a Google/Verizon/AMD machine that could be used anywhere, anytime...
As for Sun? Grasping at straws, as usual...