new approaches like services offered by Google!

"... new approaches like services offered by Google and the growth of dedicated consumer devices that make owning a traditional personal computer less necessary."

"... today’s most compelling products are Web-based applications that run just as well on Linux with the FireFox browser or OS X with Apple’s Safari browser as they do on Windows."

Google uses a network of 100,000 servers that uses Linux which is an open-source operating system. This only proves that successful business does not need powerful commercial servers but a team of computer scientist that can build an intricate network of computers forming a mainframe. Yes, it seems a mainframe computer, a networked PC as it can be easily described is becoming an important solution to today's problems in terms of access speed, bandwidth constraints, slow stand-alone servers etc. Now can we think of other systems that may use mainframe to benefit us other than searching the web?

In the Philippines, there are more mobile phones than PCs. Yahoo messenger and chatrooms and other wap sites are already being used but the cost of availing of this services are quite expensive and not all of the current mobile users have access to this new technologies (i.e., MMS). Certainly, mobile technology will not eliminate the use of PCs. Mobile phones can be used as portable data storage or as portable identity card or a portable terminal connected to an office computer or mainframe. As mobile phones becomes installable just like computers, combining portability of mobile phones and the computing power of computers and mainframes, people can be more productive in their offices.

Today, most of the software companies sells software products in CD and some are being downloaded on the net. And these software performs a lot functions that are different to other software installed in each device. The problem is the cost and difficulty of ugrade. To upgrade a Windows, for example, you need to buy or download a new software package and install it in all PCs/devices. Download upgrades are up to now still constrained by the bandwidth of the communications lines especially on dial-up networks. One solution to this problem is to provide a unified user interface (UUI) to all PCs/devices. Imagine opening a 3D browser and you can play movie/music while you update your database and at the same time you compose your document all in the same user interface. All individual components of the UUI can be updated in one time and you dont need to update one by one. Imagine a user interface that opens all types of files that you encounter on the net. This setup needs a central applications server where clients connect to access the UUI. Since LAN is high-speed, user access will not be that difficult. Update of the server maybe done after office hours or whenever there's a new update on the software. Right now, LTSP(Linux terminal server project) is similar to this but still the user needs to learn all different types of software.

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