Conference decwet::windows-nt

5892.0. "MS Hydra (NT5.0) multiuser, NCs" by ROM01::OLD_CIPOLLA (Bruno Cipolla) Wed Apr 09 1997 02:02

    
    +            IN U-TURN, MICROSOFT PLANS THIN CLIENT
    
    Microsoft Corp, having greeted the whole concept of the
    sub-$500 Network Computer with scorn and derision, is now
    reportedly working on client and server software for a sub-$500
    diskless Windows terminal to make a pitch for a share of the
    market going to Network Computers. Bill Gates apparently
    pre-announced the new machines last week at the Software
    Developers Conference in San Francisco, adding that support for
    Windows terminals will be included in Windows NT 5.0. The
    specification is expected to include a graphic display
    interface; a keyboard; a mouse; 4Mb each of ROM and RAM; and a
    network interface board. Microsoft was clearly caught off guard
    by Gates's pre-announcement, and couldn't say what software it
    will run: "It might run Windows CE or some version of Windows,
    or maybe something else altogether; we just don't know," it
    told the paper, though we understand they will be supported by
    the multi-user version of Windows NT code named Hydra (CI No
    3,112), which is both a full multiuser NT kernel and a th
    in-display protocol reportedly nabbed from Intel Corp.
    
                             By Tim Palmer
    
    And now that it seems that it does believe in Network Computers
    or thin terminals after all, the company should remember the
    awkward lesson of IBM Corp's 9370 small mainframe. Not only did
    the 9370 offer the best price-performance advance since the E-
    series or 4300 at the end of the 1970s, but it was stuffed with
    things such as Ethernet interfaces that users had requested but
    IBM had always assured them they didn't want or need. The
    result was that the early 9370s were an abject failure as all
    the users had been assured they didn't want or need the things
    that IBM had at last included and decided that now IBM had said
    they were all right, they would go with a company that had
    always believed in such things. In the case of thin clients,
    that would be the likes of Oracle Corp and Sun Microsystems Inc