Ravi Pandya
ravi@iecommerce.com
www.iecommerce.com
+1 425 417 4180
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ABOUT ME

Ravi Pandya
Architect
Cloud Computing Futures
Microsoft
ravip at microsoft.com

03-	Microsoft
00-02	Covalent
97-00	EverythingOffice
96-97	Jango
93-96	NetManage
89-93	Xanadu
88-89	Hypercube
84,85	Xerox PARC
83-89	University of Toronto, Math
86-87	George Brown College, Dance
95-	Foresight Institute
97-	Institute for Molecular Manufacturing

DISCLAIMER

The opinions expressed here are purely my own, and do not reflect the policy of my employer.

The Future of Personal Computing

Nicholas Carr just posted a provocative note. I think in the interest of telling a good story, he glosses over some important details. I doubt that Jonathan Ive's design aesthetic would allow Apple to sell a $199 computer. And the collision between Steve Jobs' carefully crafted perfectionism and Google's get-it-out-quick prototyping culture would make it very difficult for them to collaborate rapidly or coherently. And Microsoft has many more strengths in this area than he gives us credit for.

But those are just details; it's hard to argue with his basic thesis. For most ordinary people and for most information workers, their internet access and their browser are more important than their personal computer and its operating system (whether it's Windows, Linux, or OS X). The only real exceptions are entertainment, for which specialized devices like the iPod and XBox are dominating, and complex creative work, like engineering and design, for which people still need real workstations. As a software developer, I have a quad-core Xeon with half a terabyte of disk, 4Gb of RAM, and 3 million pixels, and I'd happily take more. But for my personal life, and an increasing part of my work life, a computer with just a browser would be Good Enough.

06:45 #