Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: the OS price

Author:Eric Kidd
Posted:7/4/1999; 12:45:26 PM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 7/2/99
Msg #:8176 (In response to 8167)
Prev/Next:8175 / 8178

(I'm speaking for myself here, not for UserLand.)

I'm not coming from the usual place, I'm seeing a market that's huge, much bigger than today's server market. Simplicity and price and configuration competition is what's needed to make this market happen. NT can't participate in that market, with its current distribution options and pricing.

I'm watching this market, too. I like owning a server; it lets me do cool things without anybody else's permission.

There's no such thing as a consumer server, yet, but we're getting closer. Let's look at the history of servers:

I can see a long-term trend here: servers get smaller, cheaper and easier to administer. Right now, things are split--NT has "easier to administer" and Linux has "smaller and cheaper". My prediction: the trend will continue, as it has for the past twenty or thirty years.

My guess: the next important group of servers will cost no more than a cheap PC (perhaps less), speak standard protocols, and require no particular expertise to set up and run. In an ideal world, it would be possible for VARs and software developers to customize these machines heavily, and there should be lots of competing vendors. Oh, yeah--I don't want to hear the words "per processor", "per client" or "special Internet license" when I ask about prices.

The Cobalt Qube is a step in the right direction, as are some of the other networking appliances. I'm waiting for something which can be set up by the average Mac or PC user, preferably without any real understanding of TCP/IP.

The Linux community is clearly headed in this direction. Microsoft needs a story here, too.

Cheers,
Eric



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