>>I haven't seen a "compelling" app for the masses since VisaCalc, which lead to MS Office.
>
>I'd say the Internet (specifically the World Wide Web and e-mail) qualifies as a "compelling app for the masses." There have been other apps that were compelling enough to make a platform succeed - Desktop publishing for the Mac for instance, but they aren't "for the masses" like the Web. There are plenty of people these days buying a computer to "do e-mail and surf the web."

I thought of that one, but the Internet has been around, in one form or another longer than many people realize. I was on CompuServe when it first appeared, using the AREV and Pascal Forums, and before that I was hooked into a bunch of BBS's. The way internet censorship and privacy rules are going, BBS's may return. Long distance rates are getting down to about $3 per hour and dropping. Who knows what may happen.

And, few users have to use the internet the way they need Office or some accounting packages. That's what .NET is suppose to do. The internet is more of an curiosity or convenience. Have you noticed that the number of new internet sites has peaked? We may have seen the boom years of the Internet. With corporations staking out 'Intellectual Property' (the way settlers staked out property claims tribal Indian lands), and the mass confusion in the Patents and Trademark Office leading to patents on trival algorithms like 'one click' shopping, the Internet will become too expensive to use. I see that the free internet phone calls are drying up. Only one service provider is offering free calls now. Yahoo and MSN are now charging a few cents/minute for what was once free. The ad content model is failing to generate sufficient revenue so sites are beginning to convert to monthy access fees. That will go over like a lead ballon, especially if the put ads on the site too. Besides all of this, some sites are acting as hosts to a legion of spam generators, chocking bandwitdh with useless get-rich-quick, sexual enhancement, and porno schemes.