Saturday, November 17, 2007

$US200 "Network Computer" available

I remember years ago (as far back as 1995 apparently) Larry Ellison touted the "Network Computer" as the way of the future. Well it seems to have arrived now albeit without Oracle's involvement in the form of the gPC (or "Green PC"), available through Walmart stores in the US (and currently sold out). Matt Cutts, a respected blogger from Google, describes the gPC in more detail here. It seems to be an incredibly cheap way to get online, runs an open-source operating system called gOS, and encourages the use of purely web-based applications from Google. Check out some of the press coverage here. I am not sure if it would work in Australia but I don't see why not. I am fascinated with Google's web-based applications, particularly Docs and Gmail, and have been using them for a while. For example, I recently put together a spreadsheet of a budget gaming computer (with thanks to Sharky Extreme's excellent guides) I am interesed in custom-building.

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