UpFRONT

We need to start teaching programming and hacking in first grade or, better, earlier.

—Bob Frankston

First we thought the PC was a calculator. Then we found out how to turn numbers into letters with ASCII, and we thought it was a typewriter. Then we discovered graphics, and we thought it was a television. With the World Wide Web, we've realized it's a brochure.

—Douglas Adams

Wade's Maxim: No one ever made money by typing.

—Wade Hennesey

The moon is covered with the results of astronomical odds.

—onyxruby on Kuro5hin.org

Linux is like a wigwam: no windows, no gates, Apache inside.

—Albert Arendsen

A thinking computer...you mean, like a swimming ship?

—Albert Arendsen

We cannot trust some people who are nonconformists. We will make conformists out of them in a hurry...the organization cannot trust the individual; the individual must trust the organization.

—Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's

We reject kings, presidents and voting. We believe in rough consensus and running code.

—David Clark

The New Internet Computer Company (better known by its acronym, NIC, and perhaps best known as the creation of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who owns it personally) has teamed up with Menta Software to offer the equally inexpensive and ironic combination of Windows apps running across the Net on a $199 US Linux “thin” client. The NIC, which was shown running Menta's “thin server” WinToNet at Linux World Expo in New York, is designed for schools and other “price sensitive” networked environments.

We asked Gina Smith, NIC's CEO (and former high-profile journalist) to give us the skinny on adding value to extra-thin devices. “It is really cool”, she said. “Basically, our system is a super-affordable hard disk-free Linux client. We have 56K modem and Ethernet connections built in. Using Menta's Java app, we can run Windows apps from a server over the Internet.” Adds Menta's Bruce Fryer, “Why put fat apps on a thin client? When people see WinToNet running on the NIC, they are blown away.”

What are their chances? Consider these two facts: 1) their sole stockholder is worth a few dozen billion dollars—give or take a few billion a day; and 2) their home page features a prominent link that reads “GNU General Public License”.