In the early 1990s the 'next big thing' in computing was to use desktop microcomputers to display and edit data being provided by mainframes and minicomputers.
For instance, SQL required the workstation to download huge data sets and then process them locally, whereas use of terminal emulators left all of the work to the server and provided no GUI.
It seemed that the proper split of duties would be to have a cooperative set of objects, the workstation being responsible for display and user interaction, with processing on the server.
Extending these systems to support remote procedure calls behind the scenes was seen as a natural evolution, providing a solution to the client/server programming problem.
Java was now the GUI of choice for client-side applications, and Sun's OpenStep plans were quietly dropped (see Lighthouse Design).
[3] Although distributed objects, and CORBA in particular, were the "next big thing" in the early 1990s, by the second half of the decade interest in them had essentially disappeared.
[editorializing] Web-based applications running entirely on the server became the new "next big thing", and the need for a powerful display system on the client side faded, largely replaced by lightweight GUIs based on HTML and JavaScript ("Browser User Interfaces").