Our biggest problem will be learning parallel processing to take advantage of the multi-core CPUs. Here's an alternative crystal ball:
What you describe will be for a small cadre of technocrats- a return to the old mainframe days when the ubergeeks wore and deserved to wear starched white coats. The rest of us will be configuring stuff for personal iPhone-sized devices which will be chip and OS-agnostic.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
