Next Windows, next technology

In case you haven't heard the next version on Windows, after Vista, is already in the works and it is known under the cod-name Windows 7. See a small demo.

With all the talk around how Vista isn't selling, Microsoft might need this Windows 7 sooner than they think. Is this a real opportunity for Linux to get a foot onto the desktop market and become important on the list of providers of desktop software?

Or maybe the future reserves us something different, something more online oriented where each of us will carry a small device, a la iPhone, which doesn't matter which operating system runs as long as it has a really good browser, and all important data and applications will be online.

If you think advances in technology makes possible solving problems exponentially bigger. The Human Genome Project for example, took about 10 years 90's and $3b for the first few, now takes about 1 month and about $1m, and is predicted in the next 5 years to get a few hours at only a few thousands dollars. This starts to look like Moore's law.

If 10 years ago, we had laptops slower that todays phones, and back than those laptops were faster than 20 years ago mainframes, imagine were things will be in the next 10 years. If I were Microsoft I would look what thing we might carry 10 years from now and start build for it now, because somebody else is most probably doing it already, like Google. Adobe already is thinking To Move All Apps to the Web.

So, what would you do as a consumer if you'd have a device which would be 10 to 100 times better than todays top of the line? Something like:

	Today's top of the line	10 years from now
Processor:	single core, 500 MHz	10 core, 5 GHz
Memory:	8 GB	1/2 TB
Internet:	300 Kb/s global 50 Mb/s local	3 Mb/s global 1 Gb/s local
Price:	$300 - $500	same in today's money
Battery:	4 h talk 2 weeks standby	2 day continuous talk + data 1 month standby*

* Battery is less than 10 to 100 times because historically didn't evolve as rapidly.

Maybe the numbers are too big, but even if you consider a device the size of today's phones but with the power of a nice laptop, do you think people would use these devices of the future differently?

I think so, and the biggest impact wouldn't be the processor power or the storage volume, but the connectivity. Already having Wi-Fi new applications are popping out.

Will this technology change the way people will interact to each other?
Will it change the way they interact with computers?