[593] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: At What Price Will TCP/IP Connections Gain Wide Market
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Roger Fajman)
Mon Apr 15 21:13:14 1991
To: com-priv@psi.com
From: "Roger Fajman" <RAF@CU.NIH.GOV>
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 91 21:11:37 EDT
Price is not the only issue. It still much harder to set up a TCP/IP
network than it ought to be. More mixing and matching is required and
it's not unusual for important pieces to be missing (especially when
non-Unix platforms are involved). A lot more knowledge is required.
Also, more per-workstation conifiguration is often involved and the
software is usually not as user friendly as with other options. A
small business with some PCs is not likely to choose TCP/IP as its
networking solution today. Something like Netware, LAN Manager, or
Vines is still a better choice for those people. Or AppleTalk for the
Macintosh folks. Technical superiority of the underlying protocol is
not enough. World-wide connectivity is not useful if you can't get the
software installed that's needed to use it.
Roger Fajman Telephone: +1 301 402 1246
National Institutes of Health BITNET: RAF@NIHCU
Bethesda, Maryland, USA Internet: RAF@CU.NIH.GOV
