Web, the next desktop?
Everyone is jostling to jump on the web bandwagon! Yes, lest they may be left out, the big names of cyberworld (did I say CyberBrahma? :smile:) are giving finishing touches to the web-subscription model of software and services delivery. This InformationWeek story claims that “within a year, Microsoft plans to offer hosted implementations of SharePoint as well as its CRM and ERP applications.” The write up quotes a Microsoft “insider” in the last line that MS may offer “Everything. Hosted Office. Everything hosted”! Isn’t that significant? A hosted version of the ubiquitous MS Office suite! You log on to MSN site, work with your letters, spreadsheets et al, but do not download anything! Is it going to be good for us, the minions, or to the Gates of the cyberworld? Time will tell.
“Software as a service” and “web as a platform” are some of the buzzwords being bandied about in the Web 2.0 era. With broadband pipe becoming commonplace and computers becoming part of the “cloud” in an “always on” mode, folks will not mind working on applications that are “web-based” rather than “desktop-based”. That is sure to usher in a typical internet Utopia when “network is the real computer”, as prophesied by Son’s Scott McNealy.
When Microsoft is around, it means Google is already there! Should be so. News about a GooOS, an operating system to be served from their powerful server grids is doing rounds around the Net. A typical “Internet Operating System” mentioned by Tim O’Reilly that has every possibility of becoming a reality, once the big boys at Google unfold their offering. O’Reilly predicts bits of applications to do particular jobs as against a big monolith of an OS.
You too wanna start a Web 2.0 – based company? Web Two Point Oh has already made one for you! 😆