[2195] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: low-end users
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Christopher Davis)
Wed Jan 29 20:23:44 1992
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1992 20:22:15 -0500
From: Christopher Davis <ckd@eff.org>
To: lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen)
Cc: com-priv@uu.psi.com
In-Reply-To: lars@spectrum.CMC.COM's message of 29 Jan 92 17:50:37 GM
Lars> == Lars Poulsen <lars@spectrum.CMC.COM>
Lars> [...] A bigger issue is support costs ... if you shift the
Lars> application environment (i.e. the CPU on which you run mail and
Lars> news and whatever) from the classroom to a service bureau (to use
Lars> 1960's terminology), we have centralized the costs, and we now
Lars> share a few specialists rather than having to teach a bunch of
Lars> schoolteachers unix system management. But whichever way you
Lars> slice it, the costs are still there, and the function needs to be
Lars> done. [...]
This can be an incredible win, costwise. Our DC office is using a
NetBlazer to get on the Internet via PSI. All they have is a FastPath 4
to do LocalTalk-Ethernet bridging (and TCP/IP translation), the
NetBlazer, a modem, and their normal office Macs.
No Unix boxes. Nothing fancy that needs handholding (the Big Red Switch
solves all ;-). All the heavy lifting is done in Cambridge, where we
have the Unix boxes and Unix people.
If the Internet weren't there, we'd be a lot less effective.
--Chris
