Surprised that you haven't heard of this powerful new virus? That may be because it is not usually referred to as a virus. Most people call it, simply, "Web Browser."

The spread of the browser interface has been endemic. Nearly every PC has caught this benign virus, because of its superior interface, low cost, and functionality-impressive. It has become more popular than any other PC tele-communications tool, and is second only to terminal-emulation in the business world.

Browsers are already the biggest killer application since the spreadsheet, and users and developers are constantly finding new ways to employ this software in local-area networks (LANs) insulated from the Internet. These web-enabled LANs have caused users to spawn a sort of Internet spin-off-the corporate intranet, that allows far better access for users.

The Web itself presents new challenges to PC venders. Like a powerful virus, it zeroes in on stored data. Unlike a virus, it will also challenge PCs architecture and hardware components. This is proven by the fact that several powerhouse venders, including IBM Corp. and Sun Microsystems, are now producing network computers (NCs)- workstations designed for nothing but web (Internet or intranet) access.

Network computers do not run Microsoft Windows or any other typical PC operating system, because a Web browser and its associated components are the only operating system it needs. Nor do NCs require hard drives because all the programs they use, and all the data accessed, are found on Web servers-either a local intranet server or one more remote on the Internet.

As of yet, the functionality of an NC is somewhat limited because many corporate intranets still provide only reference information-not the primary applications found on mainframes, LAN servers, and other hosts. Of course, without its own hard drive, an NC could not use the normal versions of word processors, spreadsheets, or other productivity tools expected by PC users. Rather, they would run applets downloaded from the server.

These issues are in a state of flux, however, as organizations start to build mission-critical intranets, and, as at least one suite of desktop applications designed for browser access nears availability.

A sure sign that the NC is seen as a serious, or at least threatening, computing environment is that the established venders who could lose market share to this new standard (Microsoft, Intel, and several other prominent PC manufacturers) have designed the NetPC, an alternative, or compromise, PC intended for Web access. Clearly, the browser virus- oops, I mean, Web phenomenon- has a full head of steam, and no one is putting on the brakes.

When and where did this browser virus first rear its ugly icon? Three years ago, the Internet was already a phenomenon, rising from two decades of obscurity to capture both magazine covers and political attention. However, it was a phenomenon with clear limitations. Bulletin-board systems and commercial online services had crumbled in its wake, but the Internet seemed to have limitless potential to improve PC telecommunication applications-while having only peripheral effects on most desktop computers. In other words, conventional wisdom suggested that America Online president Steve Case, not Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, should worry about the Internet. And then, along came Java.

With Web publishers already stretching the envelope of interactivity, it's almost surprising that no one thought of creating a programming language specifically for applications that could run from a browser.

Browser functionality took a big step when Netscape released Navigator version 2.0, which included programming hooks that let developers write their own plug-in programs. These plug-ins extended the abilities of the browser enabling it to display 3-D and animated graphics, or run interactive programs like chat sessions. Plug-ins became so popular that it looked like every interactive Web site would best be viewed with a slew of them. To top it off, one of the more popular plug-in programs-a plug-in manager-was a tool which managed the other plug-in software associated with the browser.

Since plug-ins don't come standard with browsers, users have to download them from various Web sites. Downloading is a tedious and risky proposition.

Plug-ins are proprietary software, meaning, there are no standards governing their use in browsers. The two main browsers-Navigator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer-use different plug-ins. This is contrary to the spirit of the Web: a universal, cross-platform standard.

Java presented one possible standard for running tools via the Web interface. As long as a PC's browser program supports the language (both Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer do so in their versions 3.0 and later), an interactive program can be designed to load and run from within the browser (as a Java applet) or launched in its own window (a Java application). Accessing software in this method has distinct advantages, and Java supporters have emphasized its potential to reduce the time and effort for PC maintenance.

Application software would never need to be manually installed or updated on workstations, because the latest version would be loaded from a hyperlink each time it was needed. Java applications also save money for developers because they do not need to be rewritten for every possible desktop operating system or hardware architecture. An applet which runs on a Macintosh browser will run equally well on Windows 95, Windows NT, or UNIX browsers.

Of course, loading applications from the Internet or an intranet has a potential drawback or two. If the network is unavailable, or even slow, productivity grinds to a halt. In the case of a diskless NC, slow access speeds are magnified because it lacks local temporary storage for programs and data. Anyone who has relied upon a mainframe terminal for applications has felt the frustration of losing connection and being unable to work. This same impotence may soon be marked by the browser message "404-Site Not Found."

Java has scarcely begun to alter the nature of mainstream applications, but it already has competition, of sorts. Microsoft's ActiveX is both a competitive and complementary technology for Java (you can usually depend on Microsoft to cover all possible angles when future profits are at stake). ActiveX controls can serve as containers for a variety of documents and programs, including not only Java applets, but applications written in widely used languages like C++. The Internet-applications market is still in its infancy, but so far Java remains the most popular method for building interactive programs for a Web browser.

Discussions of Web-based application software usually deal with tools like Java and ActiveX because, at least to this point, most organizations that want to do business through a browser have had to build their own applications. This is rapidly changing, however. Many venders of enterprise applications have already created browser-accessible tools. PC DOCS Open, a leading producer of document management and image archival tools, recently introduced DOCS Interchange for the Web. This program lets users retrieve documents and scanned images organized through a DOCS Open document-database manager.

Even the epitome of individual applications, the Personal Information Manager, is moving toward connectivity through the Web, with products like NetManage's Ecco Pro 4.0. With either Ecco Pro or Netscape's own Calendar Server, users separated by any distance can synchronize their schedules through an Internet link.

One of the most promising developments in Web-based applications has been the transformation of Lotus' Notes into a powerful Internet tool anchored by its Domino product suite. Notes' dominance in the groupware market has been seriously challenged by competitors like Microsoft Exchange. However, Lotus has responded to the threat by embracing the Net. Domino supports all of the traditional Notes tasks and applications but also allows a Notes database to be accessed via any Web browser. Meanwhile, the Notes client performs the traditional Notes tasks and also acts as a sophisticated browser.

Notes is much more than a shared scheduling-and-email tool; it is also a database- and application-development environment. Domino instantly brings all of these capabilities to the Web. Because it is an integrated engine that includes a series of services, from Web-page creation to application development, Domino offers the means to create Internet applications for non-Notes sites, and is also a good choice for creating one-time applications. Lotus even includes a series of Wizards, called Domino.Action, designed to make interactive sites easy to build. Finally, Notes' popularity has been steady if not growing (as may now be expected) for the past few years, and organizations that adopted Notes a few years ago have an existing base of developed applications for it. Domino will let early Notes adopters quickly convert their applications for Web access, providing a quick infusion of functionality into their users' browsers.

It is unlikely that any Notes customers have created their own word processors or spreadsheets to run within Notes, however. The ability to perform basic personal computer tasks like typing a memo will almost certainly be delivered by a third-party application developer. Microsoft has stated its intention to integrate its leading application suite, Office, with ActiveX controls that could let it be launched from a browser. It is not clear, however, when anyone will be able to run Microsoft Excel or Word from an NC. For one thing, NCs don't have the power to run these huge applications.

Another professional suite of productivity applications is much closer to completion, however. You can already download a pre-Beta version of Corel's Office for Java from the Corel Corporation Web site (http://officeforjava.corel.com). Corel purchased the Perfect Office suite from Novell more than a year ago, and is maintaining its standard PC form. It is also developing an office suite written in Java, enabling it to run in any browser window that supports Java.

The current version of Office for Java is limited in functionality, and really intended as a demonstration and testing platform. Certain functions, such as right-click mouse menus, are not yet available, and server components are accessed at Corel's own Web server, rather than at a local intranet server. This makes the document-creation tools run slowly. Also, storing, retrieving, and printing functions are completely unavailable, further hindering users. These limits notwithstanding, Corel's suite serves as proof that a browser-based computer could perform many of the same tasks a PC regularly does.

In its eventual form, Office for Java will include the Corel Desktop (for file organization and navigation), WordPerfect for Java (word processor), Quattro Pro for Java (spreadsheet), CorelCHART for Java (a charting accessory for Quattro), Corel Presentations for Java (presentation and slide show application), and a personal and group information manager.

The release version of Office for Java may not be available until the end of this year, but it should contain sufficient functionality to make the use of a Web-dependent workstation feasible.

PC versus NC-what's the difference? In 1995, Java was barely available when Oracle CEO Larry Ellison seized upon it and began promoting what has now become his public mantra: the network computer will replace the personal computer. Ellison went so far as to call PCs "ridiculous devices." Ellison originally described the NC as an efficient computer workstation without expensive hard disk or CD-ROM drives. Due to its relatively low price- $500-he predicted that every student and homeowner could afford one.

Since then, at least five companies have brought NC workstations to market. The least expensive, IBM's Network Station, contains only 8 MB of RAM and costs $695-excluding keyboard, mouse, and monitor. More practical NCs will need at least as much RAM as PCs, however, so actual NC costs are currently $1,000 or more. Oddly, since 1995, the rallying cry of NC supporters has metamorphosed from "computing for the masses" to "lower corporate support costs." What happened to the people's revolution?

Critics point out that the NC specification offers nothing but a reduction in the type of PC equipment that consumers and valuable employees have come to expect. The $500 PC is a splendid goal, but not if it can be attained only by taking a big step backward in the level of computing technology desired. Five hundred dollar workstations which lack quality peripherals and processing power are already available-they're known as used 486 machines.

The concept of running application software from a platform-independent and geographically transportable browser interface is sound, trying to repeal Moore's Law (overall personal computer power per dollar doubles every 18 months) seems like an unnecessary corollary on closer examination. The forces driving the hype of NCs are motivated by one of the following factors:

The desire of rival venders to break the control Microsoft and Intel hold over the computer industry, which is understandable, but not a goal for which consumers should be forced to compromise functional value.

A lust for centralized control by information-systems departments and their managers, many of whom still long for the good old days of mainframes and non-distributed processing. This is a tiresome but recurrent trend (remember diskless workstations?) that, thankfully, goes away when sane heads realize that buying crippled equipment won't seem so cost-effective when it has to be replaced to keep pace with competition.

Personal envy of Microsoft's Bill Gates and Intel's Andy Grove by the heads of other corporations. Perhaps they should take this envy up with their therapists, rather than with the national news media.

All of the legitimate values of the network computer can be realized by PCs, provided that browser-accessible applications are available. In addition, a PC can continue to function when the Net is temporarily unavailable-or when the next generation of Web browsers requires the presence of a hard disk, or another of the "ridiculous" PC standard components.

Microsoft, Intel, and some of their partners have countered the NC with a watered-down NetPC, but these low-cost computers are likely to be made obsolete by the Web's own ever-advancing multimedia demands.

Nonetheless, Java and the network computer are sometimes portrayed, especially in the popular press, as a dire threat to the Microsoft empire. So far, the NC has proven to be a formidable competitor for the title of "Vaporware King" which Microsoft has long held. Delays notwithstanding, the NC has provided Microsoft its first legitimate challenge in the desktop-operating-system arena since Apple's stock took a nose dive. Nonetheless, Gates is in a virtual win-win situation, and not only because the NC has greatly diminished the public suspicion of monopolistic practices by Microsoft. A world dominated by NC workstations will also be filled with powerful Web servers, and that will inevitably mean additional sales of Microsoft's NT Server and BackOffice Web server tools.

Microsoft is hardly planning on losing control of its desktop operating systems product line without a fight. ActiveX is a key technology which is arguably more versatile than Java, and Microsoft is emphasizing its use throughout its product line. The next versions of Windows NT and Windows 95 will integrate the Internet Explorer browser completely into the desktop operating systems, so users who want their computers to use a browser-based operating system might install Windows 98 instead of buying an NC.

If you think about the future of computer use, accessing applications via the Internet makes a lot of sense because it eliminates geographic limitations-the workstation in your home (or, for that matter, the one in your cousin's home on the East Coast) can do exactly the same things the workstation in your office can. About 10 years of technology improvements will boost the speed and reliability of Internet connectivity, and may also reduce data storage size to the point where everyone can carry a few gigabytes of personal data in the space of a credit card.