Content area
"I love my NC" is a statement I will not use to describe the debate between Network Computers (NC) and Personal Computers (PC). But the strongest proponent of PC-based computing, Microsoft Corporation, has tried to cloud the issues with emotional rhetoric. That is just what the company did when they distributed t-shirts and baseball caps that read "I (love) my PC" last fall at Comdex.
In 1996 Gartner shocked the PC industry by exposing the TCO for a networked Windows 95 PC at between $8,000 - $12,000 US per year. They also estimated that a company running NCs could cut 30-50% off this price tag. The PC industry has reacted by denying, disputing and finally defending its TCO turf. The most compelling argument put forth is the low-cost PC. With prices of PCs falling below $1,000 US, PC vendors have tried to blunt the TCO argument. Nevertheless, the low cost PC argument continues to ignore the fact that accurate price estimates must account for more than the capital cost.
Many computer users readily admit they would prefer not to worry about configuration and maintenance of their systems. For users who spend most of their time sending and reading email, browsing the Internet for information and publishing information, the NC is ideal. While PC vendors often tout the high performance of their systems, PC ease-of-use improvements haven't kept pace with their increased speed and capabilities. For PC users, configuring and maintaining today's PC is akin to tinkering with a high- performance automobile engine. It's not for the technologically timid.
Eid Eid is the CEO of Corel Computer Corp.
Backed by Bill Gate's awesome Microsoft Corp. empire, the personal computer has long been the undisputed champion of desktop computing. Now a new paradigm -- the network computer (NC) -- is emerging. It's goal? Nothing less than knocking the PC out of the office computing environment, and Microsoft off its lofty perch as industry Godfather.
In California, the NC-PC debate is being vigourously prosecuted by Oracle Corp. and Sun Microsystems (NC), versus Mr. Gates and Microsoft (PC). In Ottawa, those roles are fulfilled by NC manufacturer Corel Computer Corp. , headed by Eid Eid, and SHL Systemhouse's Al Lounsbury.
- - -
"I love my NC" is a statement I will not use to describe the debate between Network Computers (NC) and Personal Computers (PC). But the strongest proponent of PC-based computing, Microsoft Corporation, has tried to cloud the issues with emotional rhetoric. That is just what the company did when they distributed t-shirts and baseball caps that read "I (love) my PC" last fall at Comdex.
Don't be fooled. The debate is not about emotion, love or politics. It is about pragmatic business decisions, productivity and money. Be it PC or NC, the debate is about vendors providing customers the best hardware and software that makes business sense.
The debate exists because of three key issues. First, customers expressed dissatisfaction with the price of running PC networks. Second, customers began to complain that PC hardware and software were too complex to maintain and upgrade. Third, a new programming language, Java, and a new computing platform, the Internet, offered companies opportunities to centralize and simplify computing.
Price. It is an important and sometimes misunderstood component of the debate over NCs and PCs. Although the purchase price is the most visible element of a computer, industry analysts have quantified all the expenses related to owning PC networks. One such analyst, the Gartner Group, coined a phrase: "total cost of ownership" or TCO. In its analysis, Gartner calculated all possible expenditures including end-user labor, time wasted, capital costs, tech support and administration costs.
In 1996 Gartner shocked the PC industry by exposing the TCO for a networked Windows 95 PC at between $8,000 - $12,000 US per year. They also estimated that a company running NCs could cut 30-50% off this price tag. The PC industry has reacted by denying, disputing and finally defending its TCO turf. The most compelling argument put forth is the low-cost PC. With prices of PCs falling below $1,000 US, PC vendors have tried to blunt the TCO argument. Nevertheless, the low cost PC argument continues to ignore the fact that accurate price estimates must account for more than the capital cost.
A large part of the TCO equation relates to the second key issue of the NC versus PC debate, simplicity versus complexity. Using Gartner's numbers, management, support and training represents about 78% of the TCO of a PC. It echos what users have been saying for years: PCs are too hard to set up and configure. If a piece of hardware or software doesn't work properly, users must turn to one another or to a technical support resource. With hundreds of possible configurations and numerous applications, technical support providers must be able to troubleshoot an enormous array of hardware and software permutations.
In addition, all the effort and expense doesn't always produce tangible productivity gains. Many high-end PCs are underworked, as they are only being used for email, word processing and web browsing. Furthermore, as the complexity of the computers increases so does the chance that users will accidentally delete critical corporate information. For example, as hard disks increase in size, without rigorous backup procedures key information can easily be lost.
Make no mistake, the PC has its place as general purpose workhorse. It has hundreds of different hardware configurations and there are thousands of software programs that run on the systems. Users who need access to software for such things as graphic design, software programming and desktop publishing should have a PC on their desktop.
But many computer users readily admit they would prefer not to worry about configuration and maintenance of their systems. For users who spend most of their time sending and reading email, browsing the Internet for information and publishing information, the NC is ideal. While PC vendors often tout the high performance of their systems, PC ease-of-use improvements haven't kept pace with their increased speed and capabilities. For PC users, configuring and maintaining today's PC is akin to tinkering with a high- performance automobile engine. It's not for the technologically timid.
Price and complexity aside, the Internet and the Java programming language are the most important issues in understanding why network computing is so appealing. The value of the NC is that it provides easy access to corporate networks and the Internet. When combined with the Java programming language, network administrators can, from one central location, provide new features and services to users.
The Internet has also signaled the end to the feature and upgrade race. In the PC industry upgrades are necessary to improve productivity. Upgrades encourage rapid technology obsolescence, which means customers find themselves purchasing new technology every 18 months.
The Internet nature of the NC means that client hardware does not have to be as complex, nor upgraded as often, as PC harware. This will help companies reduce training and support costs and increase the value of the device.
The crux of network computing, finally, is the power to share ideas and content by connecting people through networks such as the Internet. On the other hand, the PC, was designed to act in a stand- alone manner, and has only recently been adapted to act as a networked machine. Current applications loaded and launched from the machine are not currently designed to operate well over the network. The greatest strength of a NC is that it was conceived as a network device right from the start.
As expected, PC vendors have too much money and resources invested to abandon the network computing market to NC vendors without a fight. Although PC vendors often scoff at the notion of network computers, they have been fast to react with potential solutions that will make their systems more like NCs: network friendly and easier-to-use. For example, in a letter to shareholders in Microsoft's 1997 annual report, Bill Gates wrote, "Our top priority in fiscal 1998 is simplicity: reducing the total cost of ownership and complexity."
PC vendors have launched new hardware and software products and have indulged in creating fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) among those who purchase computing systems. For example, as this group is delighted to point out, NCs promise to simplify computing at the expense of considerable trade-offs. The most significant, they would say, is the reliance on the network: "If the network goes down the user is dead."
There are two answers to this argument. The first is that a PC user in today's connected environment is equally unproductive without a network. The second answer is found in the design of the NC from Corel Computer. It incorporates a design feature called a persistent cache or local storage device. This allows users to continue to work even if they become disconnected from the network. Smart software design allows the device to update files to the network when reconnected.
Furthermore, the PC camp argues that the NC is not compatible with the PC because it does not run Windows-based applications. Although the Corel Computer NC is a Java-based system, it is quite capable of running Windows applications from the network. Furthermore, Corel is designing software that will allow users to access Windows applications not just from NCs, but from any platform with a Java Virtual Machine.
The PC camp will argue that NCs are not compatible because customers will have to run two parallel computing architectures: Windows and the Internet.
Guess what...most companies already do!
Black & White Photo: The Ottawa Citizen / Corel Corp. is betting on network computing. President Eid Eid says, for many users, that's the smart way to go. ;
Copyright Southam Publications Inc. Mar 11, 1998