Network Computers from Oracle, etc...

Folks, I wanted to start a thread to talk about NC's. Am I dreaming or do I have an 'NC' on my desk in the form of an X-Terminal? This product seems like a joke to me, and I can't believe that it has any marketplace viability. What do these things do that I am missing? I saw a quote on quote.yahoo.com as I was checking investments that absolutely cracked me up and prompted this post. Here is the text: "Still, even though NC hardware has not been popular, the concept of network computing -- low-cost PCs asking big central computers to handle their computations -- has taken off. This type of centralized computing makes its easier for big companies to manage networks of thousands of computers, so lots of developers are concentrating their efforts on network computing, Dataquest said." Has taken off? Is this not the old dumb terminal-mainframe environment that has been around longer than I have. Xterms do the same thing and have been developed on for years. It will be a good 10 years before NC's can take off in the public because you will need a T1 to your house to be able to run one. My comment is: Let Ellison push this hard - devote all your company's resources to this endeavor!!! This is Informix's mistimed Universal Server for Oracle! Now that Informix is back on track, they have a real opportunity to beat up on Oracle. NC's for all!!! James Saville BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc.