Saw an article in Information Week that spoke of Google's move to offline application chunks. They are giving, free, to developers hunks of code that will work inside any browser.
The chunks (I think they were called "bricks") will allow word-processing, spreadsheet and other standard computing apps to be downloaded once and then used off-line. Google is encouraging "mashups" such as what has been done with Google Maps (real-estate companies employing Google to map out sale properties, etc).
On top of that, Novell announced they were pulling back from their non-litigate agreement with Microsoft. They'd entered into that under threat that MS would sue them for patent infringement over intellectual property inside SUSE Linux (now owned by Novell).
MS has been pushing these agreements on the big Open Source players to force them to limit development and cooperate with MS. There has to be a reason that MS is trying to get a control on Open Source... and the reason is Open Source can now compete on a level playing field with MS ... and is absolutely free -- except for support which is where these companies aim to maike their money.
But Novell is considering pulling out of the agreement. The reason is that the Open Source world has crafted a new license, called GPLv3. The license takes aim square at alliances like MS/Novell. Core GPL software (i.e. Linux core) cannot be distributed by any company in such an alliance.
These two windstorms are highly significant. The world of software and high proprietary costs are beginning to evaporate. We're looking not just at a commodity world. We're looking at a world whose only analog is the free library. You won't have to buy the software, you just download it when needed.
I see a world where the PC is no longer an operating system which runs multiple programs. I see a world where the browser will be the operating system.
The paradigm has shifted. It may already be too late for MS.
D--
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