This world of instant access to information has arrived. Unfortunately for Microsoft, it is called the World Wide Web. Clearly, Microsoft and Intel would like the answer to be a traditional personal computer running Windows, but new and more accessible options are appearing everywhere. In the networked world of the Internet, information and services are everywhere and available for download to remote systems. Information can exist in the form of static documents, images, audio, and video.
Services can be dynamic, in the form of database transactions or entire software applications.
This distributed environment creates a whole new design center for computing. The nature of the client, its cost, resources, and capabilities are variables that are unique to each specific purpose or use. In fact, with applications that are entirely transactional, there is no need for local storage beyond the requirements of display and network caching. But first, let's look at how Java ties into this new computing paradigm. The Network Computing Reference Profile Version 1 defines a standard client environment for network computing.