Thanks Fredrick for another inspiring post :) I truly needed that after this trying weekend.... :)
It's true. The real revolution is happening very quietly and many people (from government to businesses) are missing it.
Gates is doing his usual 2-step as MSFT had done with Internet Wave 1 back in '95. He's still trying to make everyone conform to the Win32 API world and it's not happening. How could the world abandon tried-and-true IP for what MSFT uses in it's place? Come on~~!
Ok, aside from that point, what does MSFT bring to the table for the future? Bloated client software that requires too much administration, not enough stability or interoperability and yet is pre-loaded on too many PC's being purchased. Couple that will a bottleneck backend system that restricts developers to certain criteria and licensing schemes and what do you have? A mess....the past...
Here's the real kicker - internet-ready appliances such as Novell's ICS and AOL's Anywhere devices will pave the road towards a different computing model. I'm not saying we'll jump back in time to the era of the mainframe but thinner clients are coming down the road. Couple that with service specific devices (such as Novell's ICS) and we have a true distributed model.
Let's face it, with new companies offering services such as file storage and retrival over the internet and Application Service Providers to "rent" applications from, our computing devices of the future will not remotely resemble these systems we use today. The only limiting factor at this point is bandwidth (and I hear that's coming soon!).
Novell is positioning themselves at the core of this revolution with it's redesigned and innovative products. NDS will be the lifeline that this new world will breathe on. It will be the "glue" that binds cyberspace and makes possible the access we truly need to make business-to-business, consumer-to-business transactions complete.
Novell's NDS-centric products will leverage the tremendous power of the directory to offer better, more managable services. This in turn will fuel new product innovations and entreprenurial visions of services we have only begun to think of.
Novell has the groundwork, I'm sorry, the framework for this new model to work. They be at the center of what will transform the way we do what we do today. Once these backend systems prove the new model as not only plausible but profitable, the revolution will take on a new face.
Gates is lost in his initial vision - which in theory was a wonderous idea (to unify the desktop under one OS thus fueling a massive growth in the PC market). Now the next stage in evolution will take place and it has nothing to do with the desktop OS. Thin-client access will liberate us, the end-user from our current plight.
We now have the right medium (the internet) with multiple access points (wireless, satelite & cable) - the directory is just coming into play now (reference the move by Cisco and Ford of incorporating a directory to handle administration and access to their extranets, a validation of the directory). Once these pieces of the puzzle are fitted into place, the device (or devices) we use to "get online" become secondary to actually being connected.
Gates et al want to control the devices as an entry point thereby "taxing" the end-user with bloated software costs and complex devices that turn obsolete in months (if not days). We need to break out of this model to gain the real freedom we need and deserve.
Once that is done, companies like MSFT will fall away from their dominance and the true winners will be those companies which in their foresight, have created the new model of connecting resources. As simply as I can say it, it's all about connecting resources whether it be a file, a service or another person...it's all about getting there.
Novell is the company that does that here and now. Their products will continue to get it done while other companies work to make the current model work to their advantage. All the FUD and marketing in the world can't help them once the revolution comes to the eyes, ears and fingertips of the end-users.
This is why I'm long in Novell and working to gain more in terms of knowledge and ability in Novell products.
Peter J Strifas
Here's something to take a look at:
rainbow.com
Fairly simple device that connects to a USB port - something that in 2-3 years will be on EVERY computing device. Biometric devices will also become cheaper and more mainstream also giving the opening into more secure transactions and reliable relationships. All about getting connected... :) |
