[ros-dev] The Future of the Desktop

[Rick Langschultz]

Here are a few of my predictions of the future of the desktop. Having  
stepped back from the role of an internet developer in the past year  
I have been focusing more on the programming of binary executables.  
However, seeing the ever increasing change in desktop technology I am  
going to make a prediction of the future of executables in the  
operating system.

My prediction is: binary executable software will no longer exist  
except for the underlying operating system. Instead the desktop will  
be a transparent web environment that will load AJAX applications and  
utilize web services to connect online data to desktop data. Also  
there will be minimum to no storage locally on the users desktop  
system, instead there will be online libraries filled with personal  
user data which will be in XML file formats, or other text-file based  
formats. This way a user can use a thumb print on the computer to  
access their personal data, and email on any computer in the world as  
well as in a variety of language formats.

That is my prediction of the future of desktop systems of computer  
users.