ip: ELLISON & GATES: "IS THE FUTURE ON THE DESK OR ON THE NET?"

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

ELLISON & GATES:  "IS THE FUTURE ON THE DESK OR ON THE NET?"
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison told a Paris conference that "the personal computer
is a ridiculous device.  Client server computing is expensive and
complicated to develop."  Ellison thinks that expensive PCs running
prepackaged software will be succeeded by $500 terminals that will also
replace the TV and phone in home and office, leaving the computer network to
distribute software and information when the terminals call for them.
Microsoft's Bill Gates told the same conference that there were "incredible
security problems" now on the Internet and said he doubted that anyone would
want to use a "dumb terminal."  (Financial Times 5 Sep 95 p1)