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'''Network computing''' refers to computers or nodes working together over a [[computer network|network]].
As distinct from stand-alone computing, this term first appears informally in the late 1970's to denote computers working together over a network. It later came to have a specific technical meaning, denoting a graphical form of remote computing. It retains its more general meaning, however, in commercial IT circles.
'''Network computing''' may also mean:
As network protocols became part of increasing numbers of commercial systems in the 1980's, the term "network computing" became increasing redundant. By the late 1980's, companies such as Sun Microsystems had marketing campaigns that announced "the network <i>is</i> the computer".
*[[Cloud computing]], a kind of Internet-based computing that provides shared processing resources and data to devices on demand
*[[Distributed computing]]
*[[Virtual Network Computing]]
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By this time, stand-alone workstations & [[personal computers]] had come to dominate the computing landscape. They were inter-connected, but they were increasing decentralized, unlike [[time-sharing]] systems. As machines became more commodified, they began to fail more often. The notion emerged of centralized time-sharing, over a very wide area network, as a way of retaining one's "computing identity".
[[Larry Ellison]] of [[Oracle]] and [[Scott McNealy]] of [[Sun Microsystems]] began to talk of a "dream of network computing", where [[thin client]]s were replaceable, but personal information & computing activity was retained on central computers. The technology for this already existed at the time, in text based computing in the form of remote-login, and in the [[GUI]] form of the [[X11]] windowing system, which allowed a workstation to act as a thin client to a remote machine. But Oracle & Sun were targeting corporations that had become very PC dependent.
With the advent of the [[World Wide Web]], any server became a centralized data repository, and any browser could turn a computer into a [[thin client]]. [[Web services]], for example [[Webmail]] services such as [[Hotmail]], reduced the personal information kept on a client machine, and allowed people more mobility and personal information security.
In a sense, web browsers and web services made Network Computing for the masses. But it wasn't a full computing experience, of the sort normally provided by [[Personal computer]]s, and of the kind which Network Computing had promised. In 1999, an AT&T/Olivetti laboratory released screen mirroring software that worked in a web browser, and they dubbed this [[Virtual Network Computing]] (VNC), to distinguish it from commercial Network Computing requiring special [[Thin client]] hardware. Within months of VNC's release, Network Computing for the masses finally became available as a web service: a small start-up called [[Workspot]] provided VNC connection to [[Linux]]-based desktops.
[[Category:Computer networks]]
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