Top Ten Tech Trends

Laissez-faire capitalism, or anything remotely resembling it hasn't existed in much of world in a very long time... and when possible signs of something hinting at it do rear its head... they are quickly beaten down.

Remember... the whole subprime thing in this country did not come about because the market said it was a good idea to give loans to people who couldn’t afford them... but because they were required to give those loans.

I'm with Manip though... Windows Home Server's are the future

Didn't they try a negative-freedom socioeconomic policy in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union?

Some might say they tried to do that... however given their actual execution in support of that goal it's rather unfair to claim they ever 'tried' it.

I thought the result of that was just a bunch of oligarchs and horrendous corruption.

Former hard line communists trying to run a freedom embracing, free market system generally doesn’t exactly work out well when the resulting government is so weak that they are not able to engage in the legitimate functions of government.

I don't believe WHS is the future, since it's still too much trouble for your typical home user.

So you think it’s troublesome for the typical home user to install an app, pick a password then have their PC be backed up every night without any more work?

We'll see more "buttonless" network-attached appliances that fulfil individual roles people need,

I agree that there will be more network attached devices, however I dispute that more of them will be single purpose (or integrated) NAS devices as people don’t want to have all of their data spread throughout their home, they just want it to be available no matter where they are without having to think about which device or PC they need to turn on.

I honestly expect WHS to be killed off in the next wave of budget cuts in 5-6 years time.

5-6 years is an awful long time in this industry where a lot can happen... and I’m not going to even speculate on what the future may bring because I’m just too tainted by where I know we play to go in that time.

I mean, they killed off Flight Simulator and MS Money, those must have been bigger money spinners than WHS.

You've been following Microsoft for how long? You realize that selling a product isn’t always about the money it will make you directly... right?

As fantastic as Windows Home Server is as a product with a great future as a revenue generator for the company... unlike FS and Money is less about selling a product to add to our bottom line today as it is selling a platform for the home for today and tomorrow.

What incentive is there to buy a second PC, a 360 or play around more with Media Center when you have Flight Simulator or MS Money in your house? With Windows Home Server in the house many more easy integration options exist today with many more possible with just a little more work... either from the end user or companies who see the benefit of utilizing the platform.