Thursday 21 June 2007

The computer desktop . . . finally

After some 20 years dealing with the unintuitive concept of pc desktops from mac, windows and more recently Linux, we have finally got the REAL desktop . . . or table top. It is the Microsoft Surface. Before anyone jump on saying that MS didn't invented most of the technology behind it, and that they are as always stealing ideas, the reality is that they bundle all the required items and came with the product and this is what matters. And by the first time in the last decade, they came with it the first-

Let me say this stright: It has been a long, long time since any news in the computer industry excited me just a little bit, but I think that the Surface is going to be the next big thing in the computer market. Really big. It actually will define an entire new market. Or more than one market, maybe.

To start with, they will be real home PC. Forget about media centers (ah, I see, you've already forgotten them. Me too) and home servers. Ordinary people don't want them. Even most of the geeks out there (including me) don't want them because it is too much a hassle for too little benefits. The Surface, on the other hand, brings the usability to a new, higher levels.

Secondly, at the office, I foresee a no so distant time when knowledge related workers (managers, programmers, designers, researchers, physicians, and the like) will use this kind of work surface as its main desktop. Even more, I'm pretty sure that the surface will replace the conference room tables very, very soon. The possibilities for collaborative working are endless.

Enter the future desktop.