We'll have the $100 MIT handcrank laptops with a basic MS operating system, and Google for everything else. Soon Google will be yer ISP (free wi-fi) and sooner or later they'll get into opensource solutions too....and who knows???...maybe they'll make an OS someday too. As it stands now...Google is the only biz that has a chance to knock Micro$oft off the pedistal.

>I've been hearing a bunch about Web 2.0. Basically, Web 2.0 is a collection of Web applications (like wikis, blogs, and web services) that are better than what we've had in the past (like content management, personal homepages, and screen scrapping).
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>The problem is we've been dealing with msot of the technology for 5 years, unlike most web users now tasting the advantages of the new over the old.
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>This is a problem because, can we really get excited about something that we were excited about 5 years ago?
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>So what to think of Web 2.0?
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>I'd rather change the subject. PC 3.0 is going to be the next major evolution of the biz.
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>What do you think:
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>http://www.cosmik-debris.net/?p=85
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>Talk about Web 2.0 has sprung up on the web, and I must admit that I’m not extracting anything useful from what is being said.
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>I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and it appears to me that any new major evolution of the Web will require a major evolution of the PC istelf.
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>The reason we don’t use technology to its full capability is because it isn’t easy to use. It may be simple for a computer programmer to use a wiki to docment a project, but that is because this is a skilled computer user who already happens to be sitting at their computer when it is needed.
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>A gardener, on the other hand, would not like to walk from the garden to the home office, login to the internet, and look up the maintenance schedule for the various plants in the garden.
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>So a pen and paper is used. Why? Because it is easier to use than a computer.
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>That could change though. I think there are two requirements to meet before this changes:
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>1. Speech recognition
>2. The majority of computers are mobile or settop (TV based) instead of desktop or laptop
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>This will be PC 3.0*, and it must be in place before a major evolution of the Web occurs.
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>Simultaneosly, the technology companies will evolve.
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>Google, AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Apple are all working to become what I call Web Service Providers. Nearly all of these companies offer web search, email, news services, home pages, and entertainment content.
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>The Web Service Provider will become (or replace) the ISP. In the case of Google, its plans with free wireless internet access couldn’t be clearer.
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>The Web Service Provider will become (or replace) the cell phone company. Again, in the case of Google, a free wireless internet with GoogleTalk? By the way, I use a VOIP phone all day everyday, and GoogleTalk is way better! The notion that it could be used exclusively instead of cell phones is not an overstatement in the slightest.
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>The Web Service Provider will replace the cable companies and radio stations. In the case of Apple, look at iTunes. If you had a wireless iPod, you could listen to streams or your songs without ever turning on a radio. When iTunes goes video it will include all your favorite movies and television shows. There would be no reason to pay the cable company if you could buy your TV show over the internet and download it to your settop or take it with you on your mobile.
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>This will be the next major evolution of the Web: where a Web Service Provider becomes your internet, cell phone, and cable companies all rolled into one.
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>It will be ushered by the next major evolution of the PC: a mobile or settop device that you can interact with naturally using speech.
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>I’ve got pages more to say about this, including this model’s unique ability to support XML Web Serivces, and closed and open source software in equilibrium. But more on all that later.
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>For now the buzzword, as far as I’m concerened, is PC 3.0.
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>Most of the companies I named are well on their way to becoming WSPs. And with XBox and iPod, Microsoft and Apple are well on their way to PC 3.0.
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>It’ll probably all happen without anyone realizing it.
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>* 2.0 was the Macintosh/Windows GUI
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