Nick Demos writes:

> Got to agree with Denys, here.  IMNSHO, two things stand out:
> 1.  People Want enough power on their desks to conveniently do
> word processing, spread sheets and a FEW other minor
> applications.

I'm afraid I disagree, but what else is new. ;)

First, I'll accept that this is what is commonplace AT WORK (not counting
graphics professionals and engineers).  That is, if PhotoShop were lots
cheaper, people may well enjoy being creative with pictures on their
computer at home.  And we KNOW what the resource demands are for
PhotoShop -- everything you can give it!

But even at that, there is one other technology (aside from speech
recognition) that begs for both more power and more network bandwidth:
video conferencing.  With a significant increase in power, perhaps there
would be greater compression, or at least quicker on-the-fly compression,
resulting in a much improved user experience.

Add whiteboard capability, and the demands are that much greater.

Besides, if the minor apps were all that people cared about, then
why in the world have businesses kept buying upgrades to both the
software AND the hardware for the last 5 years?

Just to run the latest version of the OS?  (After all, how many people
are that much more productive with the latest versions of their word
processor or spreadsheet?)  Puhleeze.

> 2.  They want to be connected to he company intranet and/or the
> Internet to get information from the enterprise's mini, mainframe
> or whatever.

THIS was the biggest reason for my last upgrade.  GIFs and JPEGs
draw SO much faster on the 180 MHz machine vs. the 25 MHz machine.
Otherwise, personal productivity may well be comparable.

--Glenn Cole
  Software al dente, Inc.
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