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| F E A T U R E Network Computing 10th Anniversary Guest Column 1: A Look Back, A Look Ahead | ||
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October 2, 2000 By David Strom Back then we had a great idea that surprisingly few magazines in this field have copied: Make the folks who write the articles actually touch the products they're writing about. That simple concept has given this magazine its real-world grounding ever since. The French have a saying: Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. In 1990 we wrote about problems with network printing, managing multiprotocol networks and getting different apps to talk to each other across a WAN--all problems still plaguing network managers today. Sun was a vital part of our networks then, even though it was just getting into the groove of "the network is the computer" and was many years away from claiming to be the dot in dot.com. Oracle was as potent a force then as it is now--indeed, our first feature was a review of its communications capabilities in developing distributed applications. 3Com, Xircom and other vendors were, and still are, selling a variety of networking adapters. And Compaq and Dell were selling servers. Yup, you could get a speedy 33-MHz 486 with a whopping 8 MB of RAM and a 650-MB disk drive for just $12,000! Clearly, not everything has stayed the same. Prices have changed--for $12,000 I can still get a great Dell server, only now it's got a 667-MHz Pentium III with 256 MB of RAM and a 9-GB RAID array. Xerox had just introduced copiers with Ethernet connections; today we have multifunction print/copy/fax machines, not to mention stuff like Web cams, switches and application servers. Of course, the biggest changes have revolved around the Internet. A decade ago the "Unix Internet" (a term I used in my first column) existed, but it was far from the pervasive communications highway and applications platform it is today. Now instead of NeXT workstations we have Linux and a variety of Internet appliances that are easier to use and far more capable. Ten years ago Unix was the province of a few techies; today it's an integral part of IT. In 1990 Novell was busy delivering 386-based NetWare, a powerhouse of interoperable client platforms. Unfortunately that heritage has been left behind, made obsolete by the Web browser and IP technologies it helped create. We have come a long way in 10 years. I'll think I'll hold on to those early issues--they could become collectors' items. The founding editor of Network Computing, David Strom is now a Port Washington, N.Y.-based consultant. Send your comments on this column to him at david@strom.com.
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