It's more extropian...
The purpose of the Network Computer (NC) movement is to recentralise
computing, to recentralise the power... the whole idea of centralised power
should send a shiver down any extropians back.
However, if you take a trip to Microsoft Research you'll find millions of
pounds being spent on research into distributed Operating Systems.
Microsoft's distributed OS is called MS Millennium (this gives them a
thousand year period in which to release it). The new OS offers complete
distribution of power. As long as you are running the OS, you are a part of
a 'pool' of computing resources. You may only have an average Pentium, but
if you want more power, take it from the resource pool.
Bill Gates has also very much set his aim on distributing power. He believes
giving all people the ability to create and communicate.
Microsoft is not and never will be a monopoly...
Microsoft is not a monopoly. They may dominate the current computer market,
but the current computer market is absolutely *nothing* compared to the
potential market waiting for anyone who wants it. (That'll be me)...
Microsoft don't have original ideas, but who cares...
Microsoft may steal all it's ideas from the minds of young Computer
Scientists while they sleep. But if it weren't for Microsoft who else would
actually use these ideas. Look at Xerox, Xerox PARC invented the mouse, the
monitor, the GUI, the hard drive, the laser printer and they didn't do a
thing with them (please note that anything invented by Xerox PARC was also in
production at the MIT Media Labs at the exact same time). Apple stole one
good idea, and them became so full of themselves the forgot what innovation
is!
If you want to see upcoming MS products take a trip to the MIT Media Labs
(http://www.media.mit.edu), where all Bills ideas come from. If you want to
see products that could wipe Microsoft off the face of the earth but wont,
visit Xerox PARC (http://parc.xerox.com).
Microsoft will destroy itself...
If MS Windows becomes the only OS, it will come with the hardware, eventually
Microsoft will have no reason to sell it and will hand it over to become an
open standard (by which time it will just be a set of simple objects anyway).
MS may well dominate the rest of the software market, but this will mean
nothing with the advent of speech recognition and AI. There will be a point
when you don't buy software, you just tell your computer what to do.
Bill Gates knows this and is setting himself up to become a Content provider.
However, as media creation tools become more abundant and Media independence
allows information to be stored in one medium and viewed in any, media
companies will fall and information will be collected by those who 'happen to
be there'. Bill Gates will retire... and everyone will be happy.
And that's all folks...
~Wax