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Marketing fluff or reason to get worried?

Story: Sun Microsystems Delivers Three-in-One PunchTotal Replies: 0
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Thomas

Feb 09, 2006
2:02 AM EST 		Hi,

very often I stumble over paraphrases or statements like this one: "The Network is The Computer". Besides all gossip I would like to know what's the real substance at the bottom of slogans like this.

Whenever I meet these statements inevitably terms like loosing control, being subject to increasingly spying activities or Digital Restrictions Management come to my mind. That is, things like deciding on what OS or software to install or even what to do with your box are successively taken over remotely by anonymous instances.

That sounds quite paranoid, I do know this. But seeing that Microsoft's .NET activities or Suns ONE will be the coming gateways for accessing services, or seeing Google complying with undemocratic censorship in certain parts of the world might give a real background for anxieties like this, I think.

If network really is the computer, how much control will be left for users in an environment (i.e. Passport) like this? Since I don't take a firm stand on this subject for now, I would like to know how people, participating in LXxer community think about topics like this? Are developments like this a good reason to get increasingly worried?

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