Raymond Wiker wrote:
> nem  writes:
> 
>> "Michael J. Mahon"  wrote in news:
>>
>>> So the market for personal computers was primed long before
>>> computers could be bought for under several thousand dollars.
>> And yet, there was the (in)famous statement by an IBM executive around 
>> 1970 that went something like "I think there's a home market for about 
>> five computers."
> 
> 	That is commonly attributed to IBM's Thomas J. Watson, who
> thought the worldwide market for computers would be... 5. Not
> restricted to home computers, because he supposedly said this in 1943
> - about 30 years before the first real home computers appeared (real,
> as in "not requiring a soldering iron, or a second mortgage" :-) Note
> that 1943 was also before the first general-purpose digital computer
> (ENIAC, 1946).
> 
> 	On the other hand, Ken Olsen (of Digital Equipment Corp),
> said, in 1977, "there is no reason for any individual to have a
> computer in his home". That sounds like a very dumb think to say in
> 1977, and he meant something different from what most people think.

Yes, he was arguing for the "thin client" approach to computing, where
all the programs and data are kept on a (timeshared) central server.
Reminds one a little of today's "cloud computing" doesn't it?  ;-)

There is a never-ending competition between the "thin client" and "fat
client" approaches, and a dynamic equilibrium at any particular time.

I still appreciate "unplugged" computing, so I like my "fat
clients"
(even though some are ridiculously "thin" by today's standards ;-).

At the same time, I'd be completely unwilling to give up the Internet,
so I very much appreciate "fat servers".

With 1TB hard disks under $100, there isn't much motivation for thinning
down too much.  ;-)

-michael

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