Not saying this is not a valid option, but it is a lot of overhead just to get a decent torrent client.

You are thinking like an engineer not a marketeer. And any guess which side writers/editors are going to lean towards? Even in the field that writes about engineering stuff?

The thing is that we were still just refining the WIMP interface. This is a forced switch to a whole new physical interface.

And while I more than agree that trying to use a WIMP interface with a tablet is silly, so is expecting a desktop to use a touchscreen interface when you can have access to a keyboard and mouse/touchpad/trackball.

The idea that I would want to replace my mouse with having to a) lift my arm up to my screen, b) blocking said screen with my arm/hand, c) smudgeing my screen/possiably moving out of posistion is not going to happen anytime soon for me. (And I'd put money down that I'm far from alone.)

The problem is it is not the 1990's anymore. People have been exposed to a ton of UIs now via their smartphones, tablets, and various other types of devices that they are not going to freak out if they are told that now they will be working on something other than the standard Windows UI.

If anything with the way MS has been changing around their UIs they have opened the door to buisnesses moving off Windows since if MS keeps up with this they will have to retrain their people anyway. I suppose given that fact MS does figure now is a good time to try and force UI changes on people but we will see how that works out for them.

I'm not sure what you mean by that bolded part. Most gamer computers are easily as powerful if not more than any 'fully powered business machine'. And no, playing Minesweeper/Angry Birds/Farmville does not qualify you as a gamer.

That being said I have no doubt that your 1st paragraph will evolve in some way shape or form. Likely in ways we can't really imagine yet but I think you are on the right track. However there still is going to be a place for more powerful machines that don't reside in your pocket on on the cloud.

The day we can copy houses, cars, and all physical property that can actually be stolden and not just copied your analogy will have validity.

My thing with the 'data' is when you consider those Facebook users who friend *everyone* because that is just how they use the service. Case in point:

I was listening to a local radio personality who was telling a story about how he un-friended someone and the huge fallout that happened because of it. At one point he lamented over the fact that since he had over 800 friends, and asked like who dosen't!, how was he supposed to know that person was someone that he actually worked with. (Not directly but they are a part of the same company.)

To me while the whole 6 degrees thing has always been more of a fun social thought game, trying to say that what Facebook has done here is anything more than that does not ring true.

This is an intresting point and I think, as well as my crystal ball ever works, valid as well.

That being said there are some noteable differences between the Apple back then that was a PC company and Apple now. A big one being the vast amount of cash they have now. No longer are they going to have to rely on a handout from MS just to stay afloat.

And THAT being said there also is the fact that they no longer have Jobbs and so...yeah.

So someone who just wants to hobby code a project/driver/whatever and give it away is a bad person?

Think about what you said for a moment. Yes I agree that there is a point to what you are saying overall but you lost me with that right there.

This actually lasted up until AQ40 and Naxx40. However in both those raids the whole raid really needed to be on top of their game or you can and would wipe.

Citation needed.

I have seen more websites that ask that I have Netscape v3.0 or higher than I've seen websites that did not work with Firefox. And that is with NoScript and ABP installed!

I have to wonder if this is part of the reason why MS has forced their 'ribbon' menu on everyone. To force the majority of those who still use MSO to become used to that setup.

And I also wonder if MSO was not a defacto standard would MS have provided an option to include the standard drop down menu/tool bar setup rather than forcing UI changes on people.

My old hardware hack was a 486SX that had IIRC 8M of memory. It was an old Gateway desktop (the old style case where it was designed to sit on your desk with the monitor on top) that I don't even remember where I got it. I had it running 95/98 at some points for my dad at a real estate office he was working at on and off to use with some awful 14" CRT. (They would not have had a computer period had we not put that thing there. But that is another story.)

So once I got it back I was in need of a router. Installed Barebones RH v5.0 and removed every package that it did not absolutly need to run to get enough room to install GCC and some other things on it. It ran ipchains like a champ for a few years. I remember one of the NICs was a 3Com who's driver had been written by some guy at NASA back in the day.

One day the PSU fan's bearing went so I had to pull it and did not have a replacment for it and so it ran totally fanless for a while after that until I retired it. I don't mind having my much smaller, more modern, and lower power all in one wifi router but I do kinda miss my old pizza box router sometimes.

I've yet to see any real personal drop off in the quality of Google's searches. I have to say that with some effort, tweaking my search terms and the search tools, most of the time I am able to find what I'm looking for for even relativly obscure things.

That being said I honestly don't shop around like I did in the 90's when if one search engine did not find something for me I'd move to the next.