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Larry Ellison
Co-founder & CEO, Oracle
Answers to Written Questions from the Floor:
What relation does Oracle have with education in California?
Oracle has been very active in the initiative to wire all of California's schools. But while wiring all the schools is necessary, it is by no means sufficient. We need to give every person in the school access to the educational material developed for the Internet.
Having one wire come into the school, while necessary for Internet access, does not address the issue of giving every student a computer that can access the Internet. We need to put a computer on every student's desk.
Q. How does Oracle compare with the first largest software manufacturer?
A. Oracle is the second largest computer software company in the world. Microsoft is the largest. Microsoft is almost twice as large as we are, but we are substantially larger than the company that is third.
Q. What is Oracle's strategy for support, education, and consulting so that customers can successfully use Oracle's software over time?
A. We have a wide range of software that does everything from managing Internet web sites, which is fairly straightforward, to software complex enough to help a worldwide manufacturing enterprise coordinate operations all over the world. In addition to providing software, we package consulting services with our more complex software. We are the fourth largest consulting company in the world.
Q. How can we reconcile more reliance on computers with the lack of social interaction?
A. I don't believe computers are causing everyone to stay at home and only interact electronically. The computer is a tool that is supposed to take the tediousness out of your work.
Q. Does technology widen the gap between the have and the have-nots, or is it helping to narrow it?
A. Right now, because technology is so expensive, it is widening that gap. The only way to resolve that issue is to get the cost of technology down so low that everyone can afford it. Ninety-seven percent of all households in the U.S. have a television; 94 percent have telephones. If we get the cost of computing down to the cost of a TV, we'll bridge the gap.
Q. Will Apple's Pippin computer be competition for your new $500 computer?
A. No, the Pippin will not compete with the network computer. The Pippin is made by Bondai, a toy and gaming company, and its focus is on entertainment. The focus of our network computer is on education and communication. Historically computers have been computational and game-playing machines. Now, when you attach computers to a network, they take on a wholly different character. They are communication and educational devices.
Q. What is the ultimate fate of Apple? What is the role of Apple's technology in operating systems?
A. I've been an Apple bigot since 1984 when the Macintosh first came out. Steve Jobs is probably my best friend. It is easier to use, and it’s better graphically. It's clearly reaching a declining market share, however, to the point where a lot of the software developers are not developing for the Macintosh anymore. That is a huge concern. I'd like to wish Apple well. I've tried moving to Windows 95 a couple of times, but I just couldn't do it.
Q. What has been the early reaction in the marketplace to your inexpensive network computer idea?
A. The early reaction has be en almost intoxicating. We've talked to every major computer manufacturer in the world. Not all have said yes, but none have said no. People are looking for an alternative to Microsoft. Just as physics abhors a vacuum, economic systems abhor monopolies.
Everything operates better when there is competition. It would be highly desirable for my industry to have a new device that would compete with the PC for customers. It would be healthy for us, and in the long run, it would be healthy for Microsoft.
Q. What is the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web? What's the difference between the intranet and the Internet?
A. The Internet is a set of standards such as HTTP and HTML. These are a standard set of protocols for interconnecting machines and creating networks of computers exchanging pages of information. The Internet connects companies, government agencies, and educational institutions around the world.
The intranet is a protected subset inside a given company or institution. Oracle has its own intranet. We have a lot of interconnected machines internal to Oracle that are not accessible by the outside world. There are two types of machines that run this standard software. Intranet machines, which are kept private to a given institution, and Internet servers, which are allowed access anyplace in the world. The Internet, or World Wide Web, is a set of servers that adhere to these protocols and allow access to anybody that can log on to the Internet.
Q. What is meant by massive parallel computers? How do they differ from PCs?
A. A massively parallel computer uses a lot of the same parts found in PCs, such as low-cost microprocessors, but it takes hundreds or even thousands of these microprocessors and interconnects them, so that they are contained in a single computer. You might have a single computer that contains a thousand processors working together. A conventional mainframe computer might have 10 or 20 processors.
A massively parallel machine, because it uses the same low-cost parts as PCs, is very inexpensive. We think the future of large-scale computing is with these machines, but at this stage, it is still fairly immature technology. It's very hard to program these massively parallel machines. They are very fast, but they are difficult to program.
Q. Who will finance the mainframes and software to run the NCs? How will users pay for usage?
A. You'll pay a monthly network charge to the phone company or cable TV company for using your network computer. That charge will depend upon what you use the machine for. You will be able to use the machine for video conferencing. E-mail, and a variety of different communication functions as well as simple word processing.
We'd expect a typical bill for home use to be $15 to $20 per month. There is no cost for buying the NC in this model. It is delivered to your home, and everyone gets their software updated and their data backed up immediately.
It's like the telephone. You don't worry about who provides the switches and satellites; you don't need to know. NCs inside a corporation would just plug into existing local area networks. In this case, the corporation would pay for the servers.
Q. What are the implications for privacy and data security with the NC?
A. Your data is much safer in an Oracle database than it would be in your PC at home, unless that PC is in a vault. Our databases are used by a variety of government agencies who are very concerned about data security. We passed a variety of tests that prove that it is virtually impossible to break into one of our databases.
It's used in the CIA, the NSA, and a variety of other government agencies that are very sensitive about anyone accessing that data maliciously or accidentally. That kind of security is not available in your PC at home.
Q. How does one maintain a database on the NC network?
A. It is very similar to today. You type a file and hit "save." Rather than that file being saved on your local hard disk, it goes across the network wire and is saved in a secure server. Security is ensured; its integrity is ensured, and it's automatically backed up for you.
All the responsibility is delegated to the people running the network. It is no longer your responsibility to manage that local hard disk, update your software, or find the proper serums to combat viruses.
Q. Will the surge in high-tech stocks continue?
A. When the market goes up, it goes up indiscriminately. There are a lot of companies with no profits, few customers, and very little technology going public. Just because it's an Internet stock, it goes through the roof. It's madness.
If they have customers, products, and profits, that's probably a good thing. If they don't, this can lead to problems in the future. Some of the most highly valued stocks in the market don't have deep technology, have very few customers, and have almost no prospects of long-term profits.
Q. What percentage of users currently on PCs could switch to an NO?
A. There will be more NCs than PCs by a large margin. The NC will be the telephone of the future. The navigation system inside your vehicle will be based on a network computer. Your pager three years from now might be based on the software and hardware technology of a network computer.
Your TV might be based on a network computer. NCs will never do C++ programming and architectural design, but if all you do is electronic mail, word processing, presentations, and databases on the Internet, you can do it more easily and at a lower cost than with a PC.
Q. Given the increasing popularity of the laptop portable computer, won't consumers still demand a computer with its own hard drive, CD-ROM, and software?
A. There are laptop versions of the network computer. A network computer can have its own local storage. The key is that that local storage is temporary. You unplug the portable laptop computer from the network, just like you unplug it from the power grid, and carry with you your word processing files, presentations, and pages from the Internet.
You can operate independently from the network. The key is that those copies are temporary and not master copies. The master copies are always on the server.
When you plug in your laptop to recharge it, it will automatically take the changes off the laptop and store them in the server. The permanent data is automatically maintained for you on the network. You are free to take temporary copies with you, but if you drop your computer, or someone steals it, your data is safe.
