Why the Big Tech Story Is Software
I don’t need to be much of a fortune teller to predict the key tech news of early 2007. Microsoft’s two big efforts of the past few years, the long-overdue Windows Vista operating system and Office 2007, go on sale on Jan. 30. And Apple will follow a couple of months later with the Leopard version of its OS X software for Macs.
These sophisticated and highly polished releases are a big deal, and I will be writing about them in detail in coming weeks and months. But ultimately, operating systems such as Vista and Leopard will diminish in importance.
For the past quarter-century, there has been a trend toward ever more complex software running on ever more powerful computers. In 2006, Web-based programs that can run on less powerful computers and simpler software began to emerge as serious contenders.
In place of Microsoft Office, we may soon see people adopting productivity suites from Google, startup Zoho, and others — at least for use in homes and schools. Web-based programs have always had one big drawback: an inability to work when not connected to the Internet. But in the coming year, such programs will acquire richer features and become more useful, even when you are offline.
Less Relevance
The important point is, Web programs need only a browser to work. The more popular they get, the less relevant Vista and Leopard, with all their fancy new bells and whistles, become. And because the new Web programs are all based on industry standards, even the choice of a browser is less important. For the past 10 years, Microsoft has designed all of its Web efforts to favor its Internet Explorer browser. But the new programs bundled under Microsoft’s Office Live brand are designed to work equally well on IE and Mozilla’s Firefox.
Too bad this spirit…
