A couple of things to realize when hearing that Microsoft's "Longhorn" version of Windows will require a lot of computer power. Let me put it in Good News and Bad News categories. Good News: Microsoft might actually have some innovation up their sleeves. For example, there is a lot of data out there, and for those of us who save our e-mail, there is a lot of data in here too. Maybe Microsoft is spending some horse power on presenting all that information better. (Any oldsters remember the word "databank"? We seem to have forgotten that aspect of computers. Let's put our collected data to some use.) Part of Google's edge with things like G-mail is they can marshal far more coordinated computing resources than can Yahoo or Hotmail. Maybe Microsoft will battle by having us buy that horse power? Just because we could do cool things with computers last year or 5-years ago or 20-years ago doesn't mean that there aren't still cool things to be done which our current computers cannot do. As evil as Microsoft is, they might put some of that power to some good use. (*Maybe*...) Bad News: Microsoft didn't take over the world by selling retail packages of their operating system. No, MS Windows mostly ships with new computers, and new computers ship with MS Windows. The hardware manufacturers and Microsoft are in a symbiotic relationship. The hardware has more power and requires the new OS, and the new OS needs more power and only runs on new hardware. Longhorn will ship on powerful computers and it will, naturally, require that powerful hardware. What *do* you expect the new models' specs to look like when Longhorn is released? Expect Longhorn to be suited to those machines. Certainly the details of what hardware Longhurn will require might be inaccurate, but don't let's all be so damn surprised by the world. One of Linux's problems is that it is so damn frugal. How does that help sell hardware? Thank goodness for Gnome, Mozilla, and Open Office, without them there would be no hope to get manufacturers on our side! -kb, the Kent who hates Microsoft as much as the next guy, but he isn't naive about it. P.S. Did you ever see the movie The Man in the White Suit? When I was a kid I was told that the beauty of software is that is never wore out. Well, we have been amazingly innovative in finding ways around that.
