My Dream Machine

Some days back I met Rajesh Jain of Novatium. He asked me what my Dream Machine would be like. Dream on, he said, and don't worry about costs and such.

Now, this machine that we're talking about is not a full fledged Personal Computer, as defined by the Wintel cartel. This is a device that fulfils the numerous computing and communication needs that people have. We'll get into my desired set of functionalities from this device as we proceed.

There is a competition of sorts between diskless and thin clients, the two prominent alternatives to a PC. I belong to the diskless camp, while Rajesh belongs to the latter. I think it was Sun that contented that The Network is The Computer. I've worked on SunRay thin clients and they suck, but the thin client idea still holds. I will write another document that discusses in detail, the merits and demerits of DCs vis-à-vis TCs.

I believe that in today's world, there is no ideal device. There is the ideal setup. First came dumb terminals, which worked only when hooked up. Then came the PC, meant for disconnected, individual use. Starting with the sneakernet, networks gradually crept in. Today, I can't live without always-on Internet on my home or office PC. A PC is useless without the network. Once always-on networks arrive, why not leverage them to fix some of the anomalies of the PC. Stability and price, for instance.

Notice how I use the term network, not Internet. Just as a PC is too powerful for most day-to-day computing needs, the Internet is too slow. DCs and TCs live off the network, but does it need to exclusively be the Internet? We'll come back to this a little later. First I'd like to list some of the key expectations I have from my device: