Priced at $500, bare-bones PC due out this fall

August 16, 1996
Web posted at: 7:55 p.m. EDT

From Correspondent Brian Nelson

SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) -- He is the inspiration behind the stripped-down computer that's making the established players in the industry more than a little uneasy.

Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison is behind the $500 Network Computer -- the machine designers say could relegate Microsoft-dominated personal computers to second-class status. The machine is to go on sale this fall.

"(It) will change everything. The way we educate our children -- it will be an economic and cultural revolution," Ellison said.

The PC comes with a microprocessor, a keyboard and a small amount of memory. And it can be plugged into an ordinary TV monitor. But according to Ellison, the real bargain is that the PC needs no expensive hard drive, CD-ROM drives and floppies.

Software programs will come from a new generation of public-access computer networks. Games, spreadsheets and word processing programs will be leased to consumers, much the way movies are rented from cable television companies.

"It's very, very easy for users to learn and access. Because again, they don't have to deal with configuring their disk drive," Ellison said. "They don't have to deal with upgrading their software. There's none of the software here permanently. All the software is here on the Net." (128K AIFF or WAV sound)

As such, it promises cheap access to the Internet and to huge private computer networks. But in stores where a new fully equipped PC is three times more expensive than the NC, there is some early resistance to buying Ellison's brainchild.

"Right now, I think it's an idea before its time," one person said.

Ellison and his conscripts of computer makers and phone company networks know they have an uphill battle when sales are launched.

But the flamboyant Ellison seems sanguine. Instead, he focuses on rival Bill Gates -- computerdom's current chief honcho, whose headquarters lie just a few hundred miles up the coast in Redmond, Washington. (256K AIFF or WAV sound)

"Bill Gates has said 'no one wants to go backwards. Nobody wants a computer that does less. People want a computer that does more.' I disagree with Bill," Ellison said. "I think people want a computer that does what you want it to do, better."

Soon enough, Ellison will know if he's right.

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