The Network Computing Market
An assessment of the development of the Network Computer Market, its importance and timeline.

At NC World we have watched the rise of network-centric computing from an ideal concept to real product and technology solutions. In fact, we have dedicated quite a bit to promoting this technology by questioning vendor implementations, critiquing and creating NC standards, and arguing with the best about the need and form of network-centric computing (see our August 97 and Feb 98 articles on the NC Profile and SPICE standards). We are a self-appointed watchdog for this industry and will point out both the benefits and the downsides of the technology as we go along. We go out of our way to point out the confusion in the industry generated by the press in our monthly issues of the Running Interference column. We also investigate critical legal and technical events that coincide with this industry in Nick Petreley's Stray Packets column. In general we try and raise awareness that this is more than just a competition between vendors to come up with a different means of doing the same thing. We want to show them that this is a BETTER way of doing things.