Star The Edge Computing System
Linked by Joshua Boyles on Mon 9th Jun 2003 16:45 UTC
Editorial This entire article is written as a proposal to a coprporation for a new, very unique computing system. Please offer criticism and suggestions to improve the system, and tell me whether you think it could work. What exactly is the "Edge Computing System" And more importantly, why would I want to go to the trouble of developing it? The Edge Computing System is just that, an entire system, not just a new type of computer or new software suite. The Edge is the means by which you can have your personal computer with you at all times.
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You go too far; try for open formats instead
by Vanders on Mon 9th Jun 2003 09:49 UTC

Hmm, so you've basically described a thin client machine with a CF slot. I think we've tried this before.

While your idea has some merit I think you've gone a little too far. You cannot control the hardware, so just forger about that. While you may not need anything more than your 2.4Gb of storage, or a GeForce 2 card in your machine, someone else may need half a Tb and want a Radeon 9700 in theirs. Not all computer users are equal and they will resist any attempts to make them so.

The same applies to software! You will never get people to standardise on Linux. Even Linux cannot standardise on one distribution. Your examples give choices at every turn; if you're standardising, why not just choose one desktop enviroment, one email client, one web browser, one office suite etc? I suspect you already know the answer; people like choice!

I think what you should really concentrate on is open data formats. Many of the problems you are trying to address would not be a problem if we had a well supported standard office document format, or a standardised way to store basic user preferences. Not only would this make cross platform interoperability a lot easier, you wouldn't have to worry about wether the computer in question was running KOffice or OpenOffice, or Linux or Syllable or Windows. The user could plug their CF/USB Memory Stick/Whatever into the system and it would just work. This is far more likely to be succesful in the long term, and you don't have to restrict anybodies choice to do it.