> > A part of me feels sad to see things all going to the cloud. Perhaps one > day we won’t even be able to do anything meaningful “locally” on our device > if there is no Internet access. >
[It's not Friday but] I'm so sick of decades of installing, configuring, repairing and updating operating systems that I often wish for the 1980s when everyone had dumb terminals connected to the mainframe. I'd be happy to have nothing on my desk but a flat screen and have all the storage and processing "up there". There are contemporary barriers to getting my Star Trek-like dream working: security/privacy issues, dependency on wires running into our houses, bandwidth, payment model, etc. I sense that the age of everyone locally running huge complex operating systems will slowly end. Maybe mobile devices will be powerful bridges between your desktop and the distributed "mainframe". I'm assuming that people in the future will still want a "desktop experience". People have been working at desks for hundreds of years and I guess it will continue for a considerable time. Even in Star Trek they work at desks with keyboards, although voice recognition seems to have come a long way -- *Greg K*
