Google’s latest announcement of their ‘it-can-do-everything’ computer in retrospect might actually be the manifestation of what Oracle envisioned with their Network Computer (remember that?)
Of course; the major differences are: 1) Oracle never did anything other than essentially market / tout it; 2) the cloud is a reality that is current – not expected / projected to become accessible (and/or potentially ubiquitous); finally, 3) Internet access and the race to the data-bottom (particularly outside of America) makes this device much more viable (today).
From the NY Times: http://nyti.ms/kTWijC
From Wikipedia: http://bit.ly/mPpWc