The IT Question

This mysterious invention, reportedly created by National Medal of Technology Award winner, Dean Kamen, is on everyone's lips and has captured everyone's imaginations. According to published reports, IT has caught the undivided attentions of tech revolutionaries like Apple's Steve Jobs and Amazon.com entrepreneur Jeff Bezos. Alledgedly, these progressive minds are stunned; praise and sheer amazement flow from the lucky few who have seen IT (code name: Ginger). A book deal is already in the works, news magazines are clamoring for information, and the Internet is a flurry of IT chatter.

What is IT? Reportedly, we know IT is not medicinal in nature, will be mass produced, will affect cities and the environment, as well as conventions and old-money institutions, and will, (according to the handful of people who have seen it) change lives and trains of thought.

IT Speculation naturally shifts to a mode of modern personal transportation, due to Kamen's latest invention, the iBot: A wheelchair that can traverse sand, go upstairs and stand on two wheels with the balance of a ballerina. But that is only speculation. The public does not know what IT is, and won't know until its planned 2002 release.

AND has the volume of apps that MS Windows has for it.
I don't think that there is such a big difference in volume of apps between the two. Two major windowing systems, and many more specialized ones for Linux; just one major windowing system for Windows. More server and engineering apps for Linux; more games for Windows. Many many office automation apps for both.

The volume of apps for Linux is amazing. But most people don't care, as they already have the apps they care about, and have no plans to switch. Nor would I expect them to, at least not in a big hurry.

I'll lay a wager, however, that there will be more Linux desktops than Windows desktops in another 10 years, on this planet.

I admit to running both - one for games, Quicken and Lotus WordPro, TheBat! (email) and InfoSelect (PIM), the other for most else. Except that I run Windows on top of Linux, using win4lin, because it is more stable that way. Only for games do I boot Windows native.

My dad's machine I setup with just Linux, because he wanted low cost, stable word processing and web browsing, with no particular bond to any existing app.

My son's machine is just windows - all games all the time.

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