4 ms·

It may be apocryphal, but it's not all that wrong. Those "about five" computers even have names: AWS, Azure, GCP, ...

ghaff 2y ago
Sun’s CTO repurposed the quote to make exactly that point in the 2000s, likely before any of those existed. It’s very much an oversimplification but if you squint it’s not totally wrong either.
- lysace 2y ago
  Sounds like something Jonathan Schwartz (the ponytailed COO @ Sun at the time, I believe) could have said, did you mean him? His blog was strangely addictive at the time. Great writer.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    No, I'm sure it was Greg though I don't think you can get to the Sun blogs any longer. But that's not to say that Jonathan didn't reuse the line himself. (I was an IT industry analyst at the time--and am again.) Ah, but here's a reference to it: https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/the-world-needs-only-five-computers/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/the-world-needs-only... I'm guessing it was when Sun started talking up Sun Grid though that part I'm not sure of but the timeframe of Stephen's article pretty much matches.
    - lysace 2y ago
      Ah! Oh, Stephen Shankland. He did a number of high quality reviews of this software product I was the tech lead on; about 10-15 years ago. High quality software reviews were rare already back then.
      - ghaff 2y ago
        I know Stephen very well. He's a good guy. He's leading content for Commonwealth Fusion Systems these days.
      - dredmorbius 2y ago
        There's a name I've not heard for a while. Apparently left CNET last year: <https://talkingbiznews.com/media-news/shankland-departs-cnet-after-25-years/ https://talkingbiznews.com/media-news/shankland-departs-cnet...>
- tw04 2y ago
  I believe his was actually: the network is the computer. And he was right, he just didn’t anticipate greedy US ISPs would set progress back 2 decades.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    Oh, please. Pray tell, inform us about how ISPs held back progress for 2 decades. Good broadband access could perhaps have come earlier and cheaper but it basically came soon enough once web-based services were available. I'm not going to argue that US ISPs are universally great but saying that they held back progress by "2 decades" is pretty much ignorant. Especially given that Sun was presumably mostly talking about the context of business computing at the time.
    - PaulDavisThe1st 2y ago
      1994: a UWashington CS PhD student quits their PhD and goes to help @home (IP-over-cable) get started, on the basis that they would provide symmetric up/down bandwidth at full capacity. How long was it until this became a reality?
    - dredmorbius 2y ago
      You could go back a couple of decades earlier (1960s--1980s) and point at AT&T who specifically prohibited third-party devices on their network (answering machines and even neck-rests or phone-book covers were among the prohibited items),[1] and had flatly rejected packet-switched routing as an obvious threat to their monopoly.[2] Unix itself (and Linux, Android, and MacOS) wouldn't have existed save for a 1954 consent decree which prohibited AT&T from entering the software business.[3] When the company found itself with an accidental operating system the only thing they could do was give it away for free. "From Ken with love".[4] ________________________________ Notes: 1. Partially supported here: <https://www.promarket.org/2023/02/20/when-considering-breaking-up-big-tech-we-should-look-back-to-att/ https://www.promarket.org/2023/02/20/when-considering-breaki...>. Phone book covers was AT&T v. Winback & Conserve Program, Inc. Hush-a-Phone was an earlier case in 1956 involving a cup-like device, physical only, with no electrical or electronic components: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hush-A-Phone_Corp._v._United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hush-A-Phone_Corp._v._United_S...>. 2. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_Wars#Early_computer_networking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_Wars#Early_computer_n...> 3. <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/07/should-we-thank-for-feds-for-the-success-of-unix/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/07/should-we-thank-...> <https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20190086 https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20190086> and <https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/pol.20190086 https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/pol.20190086> (PDF) 4. <https://sanctum.geek.nz/presentations/a-brief-history-of-unix.pdf https://sanctum.geek.nz/presentations/a-brief-history-of-uni...>

Sun’s CTO repurposed the quote to make exactly that point in the 2000s, likely before any of those existed. It’s very much an oversimplification but if you squint it’s not totally wrong either.

lysace 2y ago
Sounds like something Jonathan Schwartz (the ponytailed COO @ Sun at the time, I believe) could have said, did you mean him? His blog was strangely addictive at the time. Great writer.
- ghaff 2y ago
  No, I'm sure it was Greg though I don't think you can get to the Sun blogs any longer. But that's not to say that Jonathan didn't reuse the line himself. (I was an IT industry analyst at the time--and am again.) Ah, but here's a reference to it: https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/the-world-needs-only-five-computers/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/the-world-needs-only... I'm guessing it was when Sun started talking up Sun Grid though that part I'm not sure of but the timeframe of Stephen's article pretty much matches.
  - lysace 2y ago
    Ah! Oh, Stephen Shankland. He did a number of high quality reviews of this software product I was the tech lead on; about 10-15 years ago. High quality software reviews were rare already back then.
    - ghaff 2y ago
      I know Stephen very well. He's a good guy. He's leading content for Commonwealth Fusion Systems these days.
    - dredmorbius 2y ago
      There's a name I've not heard for a while. Apparently left CNET last year: <https://talkingbiznews.com/media-news/shankland-departs-cnet-after-25-years/ https://talkingbiznews.com/media-news/shankland-departs-cnet...>
tw04 2y ago
I believe his was actually: the network is the computer. And he was right, he just didn’t anticipate greedy US ISPs would set progress back 2 decades.
- ghaff 2y ago
  Oh, please. Pray tell, inform us about how ISPs held back progress for 2 decades. Good broadband access could perhaps have come earlier and cheaper but it basically came soon enough once web-based services were available. I'm not going to argue that US ISPs are universally great but saying that they held back progress by "2 decades" is pretty much ignorant. Especially given that Sun was presumably mostly talking about the context of business computing at the time.
  - PaulDavisThe1st 2y ago
    1994: a UWashington CS PhD student quits their PhD and goes to help @home (IP-over-cable) get started, on the basis that they would provide symmetric up/down bandwidth at full capacity. How long was it until this became a reality?
  - dredmorbius 2y ago
    You could go back a couple of decades earlier (1960s--1980s) and point at AT&T who specifically prohibited third-party devices on their network (answering machines and even neck-rests or phone-book covers were among the prohibited items),[1] and had flatly rejected packet-switched routing as an obvious threat to their monopoly.[2] Unix itself (and Linux, Android, and MacOS) wouldn't have existed save for a 1954 consent decree which prohibited AT&T from entering the software business.[3] When the company found itself with an accidental operating system the only thing they could do was give it away for free. "From Ken with love".[4] ________________________________ Notes: 1. Partially supported here: <https://www.promarket.org/2023/02/20/when-considering-breaking-up-big-tech-we-should-look-back-to-att/ https://www.promarket.org/2023/02/20/when-considering-breaki...>. Phone book covers was AT&T v. Winback & Conserve Program, Inc. Hush-a-Phone was an earlier case in 1956 involving a cup-like device, physical only, with no electrical or electronic components: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hush-A-Phone_Corp._v._United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hush-A-Phone_Corp._v._United_S...>. 2. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_Wars#Early_computer_networking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_Wars#Early_computer_n...> 3. <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/07/should-we-thank-for-feds-for-the-success-of-unix/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/07/should-we-thank-...> <https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20190086 https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20190086> and <https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/pol.20190086 https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/pol.20190086> (PDF) 4. <https://sanctum.geek.nz/presentations/a-brief-history-of-unix.pdf https://sanctum.geek.nz/presentations/a-brief-history-of-uni...>