> If you're worried about how Netscape will impact web space providers,
> well ths choice is simple - either keep up with the technology (ie.
> get a Unix machine with better i/o performance), or don't operate
> a web server. Nobody is forcing you to operate a web server.
Ok Phil, forgive me if I interpret your words in slightly different way:
If you're worried about how Netscape will impact your web site,
--which you provide as a public service or as a labor of love--
make sure you keep up with the technology because the tools
are now going to assume that you are fully responsible for the
performance bottlenecks.
I can see this being a real damper on the provision of free information
resources on the net. Mosaic and Netscape have significantly up-ed
the ante when it comes to providing content on the net and I believe
that we can all agree that it is not the technology which is the real
value here, it is the content. We need to be enabling content
providers, not looking to them to shoulder the entire technological
burden.
But what really worries me, I think, is that design decisions seem to
be made with the idea that we can do anything we want because the
network will react by becoming faster and more efficient. I do not
believe this to be the case.
And even if this appears to be the case now, there must be a point
where this assumption will cause the providers of the network to
radically change its economic model.
Without understanding the implications of technology, we may end up
inadvertantly creating the pressures that will drive the net to
something we will all regret, like packet charges.
</rr> -- (Technology Paranoid)