1.  Computer historians would argue that the vision was a reality before the days of personal computers, when people worked on dumb terminals that were connected to mainframes.

2.  Detwiler does not accept IBM XTs, Apple IIs, nonworking monitors or keyboards, dumb terminals or mainframes.

3.  In that arrangement, users sat in front of so-called dumb terminals connected to a mini or mainframe.

4.  Once connected, your computer is basically a dumb terminal from which you issue commands, as though you were actually typing on the host machine.

5.  When we relied on mainframes and dumb terminals, all the computing power was centralized.

6.  A dumb terminal, an NC box has no hard disk but performs all of its functions on a server.

7.  Dumb terminals have a keyboard and screen but no processor or memory.

8.  In the meantime, IBM is pushing its own NC to replace its dumb terminal which can also link to the Internet.

9.  This system is more profitable than a dumb terminal because there is no need to waste time downloading an entire application for one task.