Just read this post on Jonathan Schwartz's weblob . It basically talks about the openning up of the software world, away from MSFT and towards open source, open standards, and network- (internet-) based software. He gives examples such as Limewire, Google Earth, Skype. What a wonderful world it would be, no? Anyone staying somewhat up to date with the computing world has surely seen a huge amount of these same oppinions lately. I think that one of the main underlying themes being expressed with these oppinions is a desire, in people who are enthusiastic about information and computing technologies, is evolving past MSFT. I don't know if anything I've seen, as far as products or services go, can really encroach onto MSFT's domain, which is the OS and the office applications. Yes, yes, I hear you: what about LINUX?? HELLO?? No, I'm not a Microsoftie, I only use Linux on both my desktop and laptop, and I, also, proudly hate MSFT. But the bottom line is this: I can't put Linux on my mom's Thinkpad, and provide her the ease of use that she would get from Windows, and no it's not cause she knows Windows and doesn't know Linux, she knows nothing about either. Trust me, I tried, for a month, to get a Gentoo system that suspends, hibernates, and wakes back up on lid-open lid-close. I just couldn't do it! I'm not even new to Gentoo; I've been running it for 2 years on my machines (and no, I still haven't gotten swsusp2 working). I tried to sell it to her by based on all the incredible added functionality: little things like middle-click pasting, complete customizability, stability (yes, Linux is surely more stable), speed, blah blah blah. She even tried it for a month. But the sad truth is that she, along with 99.9% of the rest of the world doesn't care about all that crap, the don't care too much about translucency in X, tabs in their browsers, open document formats, waiting for 2 less seconds for each of their web pages to render, or having a system optimized for SSE2 on a P4. MOST, the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of computer users, just want a simple mail program, a simple browser, and a word processor that can make documents that everyone else can open, and can open everyone elses documents. I use OOo, it's better than Word, but it still doesn't have completely transparent compatibility with what EVERYONE uses: *.doc. What happened in Mass. is a great symbolic step for mankind, sure, but it's not gonna do anything to MSFT for atleast the next decade. DECADE. Firefox is cool, but there are still SOME pages for which I gotta open up IE. IE renders everything. I always have to click a few more times to select the Mozilla plugin, than I would if I were using IE. Konqueror? Konqueror doesn't even get it's own plugins, you have to tell it where to find the Mozilla or Netscape ones. I'm not trying to undermine the efforts of these developers, I personally would rather avoid the webpage than switch to IE, but I'm just gulping down the hard reality. I hate MSFT more than anyone I know, nor do I use any of it's products more than once in a blue moon, but I wouldn't subject my mom, or anyone else who doesn't have it on the life's agenda to be a computer guru, to use Linux (I'm talking about Gentoo, I've never used anything else), atleast not on a laptop. And another reality is that everyone wants a laptop now, the desktop era is gone and done with, point blank. Internet PC's, computers that are just terminals to storage and application space kept somewhere else, if one ever came out that was developed fully, marketted well, and supported well, might infact change all of this, but only if they're cheap enough. You can get a computer these days for 200 bucks. Even if they were selling Internet PC's for 150, I'd rather pay 50 bucks more for something for which I don't have to rely on a high-speed connection to operate (because most people in the world don't have one). Anyway, If someone would just show me a Linux distro that I can install onto a LAPTOP in less than a day, and that will suspend to RAM when I close the lid, and suspend to disk when I tap the power button, I will be the happiest guy on the planet, and will PAY them for it!