Is There an Echo in the Room?

Thirdpipe has been espousing for about a year now that the landscape of computing was changing. Most of which was enabled by what broadband services we have in place. Sometimes it feels like being the lone tree falling and asking the question — did anyone hear us fall? Well evidently that is the case –

This week marks several important events:

• Google announced their broad Web-as-a-platform developer toolset.

• Microsoft showcased part of their Windows 7 user interface and set the date for their PDC which indicates their new OS, Windows 7, is approaching Beta.

• In addition, I and a number of the folks I work with are seeing what appears to be a rather massive move to the Mac platform, which hasn’t seen this kind of growth since the 80s.

• Finally, Linux is beginning to get some actual traction, showing up on a number of low cost “Netbook” offerings and MID (Mobile Internet Devices); it is starting to look like even this platform may have some legs.

I have not seen this level of competition before and Microsoft has never appeared more exposed. In my lifetime I have never seen a major vendor allow the kind of attack-marketing Apple is using without challenge. And, coupled with initial problems with Windows Vista, Microsoft suddenly looks like they are in a fight for the desktop the likes of which they – and we – have never seen.

The market and its users are making a shift. Right now CPU power is the number #1 criteria. However that is rapidly being supplanted by mobility currently at number #2 on the ;user preference list. Laptops displaced desktops in sales several years ago. Now UMPC’s are coming on strong with tools like the eePC. That mobility is favoring OS’s with a small footprint and whose technical ecology can transcend across multiple platforms. Only two systems can do that — Linux and Google Desktop.

Regardless of the snaz factor for Windows 7 it will represent the evolutionary pinnacle of an waning genera of computing.

Linky.