What users want is not more features on their desktops, but richer services on corporate and Internet servers. Competitive advantage is coming from distributed applications, with computationally intensive database operations at the hub and small, cheap but responsive clients on the spokes of the IT wheel.
Tight code is back in vogue, and hardware prices are seeking consumer-electronics levels.
It feels like time for developers to get back to work. There's no substitute for people who can code. Scarce talent will go where return on effort is highest. That's why it's so important to see the arrival, finally, of Borland Software's Kylix, a Linux-based Object Pascal programming tool kit similar to the company's Delphi for Windows. For the thousands of enterprise desktop devices that are bought to run a single custom application, such as order entry or insurance claims processing, a tool like Kylix is the key that opens enterprise doors to Linux in places other than the server room.