From flschaff@embarqmail.com Mon Feb 15 09:15:31 2010 Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:15:18 -0500 From: flschaff Reply-To: wxforum@nxport.com To: wxforum@nxport.com Subject: [WX] 25 Technologies of the last decade Saw this and thought it might make us think of what has changed in such a short time. Fred Schaff, Spring grove, PA ================================ In this special report, eWEEK Labs has put together a list of the 25 most significant technologies and products of the last decadethings that changed the way we work, play and live. Some of these products and technologies set the stage for the cutting-edge tech we use today, while others are the cutting-edge tech we use today. 1. 3G broadband Sure, it's not as good as it could be. And the competing mix of standards (UMTS/EVDO) creates compatibility problems. But it wasn't that long ago that one could get Internet access only by finding a Wi-Fi hot spot or plugging in an Ethernet cable. With 3G broadband, smartphones, netbooks, laptops and even mobile offices can get pretty good Internet access pretty much anywhere. 2. 802.11 g The first generation of wireless networking technologies were cool. And if you were just accessing Internet content, they seemed plenty fast. But you could forget about sending large files to other systems on the same wireless network. 802.118 made wireless 3. AJAX It seemed simple at first-just a set of scripts and standards technologies that were already around for building Web apps. But the mix of technologies that make up AJAX launched a Web revolution, making it possible to build attractive and interactive Webbased GUIs that didn't require extra plug-ins or extensions and that worked well in most modern Web browsers. 4. Amazon EC2 Probably the first real iteration of a cloud-computing platform, Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud is still one of the most popular. Making it simple for anyone to throw a virtual server machine onto Amazon's powerful server platform, EC2 changed what it meant to own a server or even run a business: A large number of new businesses don't even own server hardware-their entire operations run on EC2. 5. AM D64 At the beginning of the decade, general-purpose 64-bit computing wasn't looking promising. Intel's Itanium architecture was proving difficult to implement and was generally seen as a disappointment. Instead of taking Intel's rewrite approach, AMD built its 64-bit platform on existing processor technology-and pushed 64-bit processors into the mainstream. 6. BIackBerry You have to admit that if a product gets compared with a highly addictive drug, it must be a huge success. The CrackBerry, er, BlackBerry quickly became a must-have mobile device, and it's still pretty much the mobile device of choice for business users. By making it easy to stay connected anywhere, the B1ackBerry certainly boosted productivity (and probably ruined more than a few vacations). 7. Blade servers Blade servers have become so commonplace that ifs easy to forget how stunning it was to see an entire server room of systems reduced to a single rack. 8. Bluetooth It can be easy to think of Bluetooth as a failure, especially if one looks at its early promises. But then consider all of the wires and cables you aren't using anymore, and you come to appreciate the accomplishments of Bluetooth. 9. Firefox just a few years ago, the future of the Web and the browser looked bleak. Internet Explorer dominated the market, and Microsoft wasn't interested in browser innovation. But when Mozilla released Firefox, we finally got real browser choice and innovation. Firefox reignited the browser wars, and today we have more competition and choice in browsers than ever before. 10. Gmail/Google Apps Sure, Web-based mail and applications existed before Gmail and Google Apps. But none offered the features, convenience and reliability that Google did. Now, entire businesses are running using only Google's Web-based e-mail and productivity applications. 11. iPhone/ iPod It was called the Jesus Phone. And while that moniker was definitely hyperbolic, it's not hype to say that Apple's iPhone completely changed the smartphone market. And many of these changes probably wouldrit have come about if the iPod hadrit set the stage for the iPhone's usability and design. 12. Mac OS X While the first iMac got lots of attention, it wasn't until Apple totally revamped its core operating system that the Mac revolution really took off. Mac OS X was a full rewrite built on a Unix core, and since its release the OS has pretty Small, light and cheap, netbooks gave the users what they want. much set the bar for operating system usability and innovation. 13. Multicore processors People who have moved from a PC based on a single-core processor to one based on a multicore processor are typically blown away. There in your system-which most likely costs less than $1,000-is a processor that would smoke the most powerful servers and workstations of the 1990s. 14. Netbooks Vendors have pushed microlaptops on us before, but these systems have all failed due to being underpowered and overpriced. The current wave of netbooks fixes those problems, achieving small size along with decent capabilities and low prices. While hardware vendors may hate them, netbooks continue to be popular with consumers. 15. Openoffice.org Sure, if the bar for success is supplanting Microsoft Office, then Openoffice.org has been a failure. But if overall impact is considered, Openoffice.org has definitely been influential, especially when it comes to opening up document formats. 16. POE Power over Ethernet is still a relatively new technology, and many companies haven't implemented it yet. But companies that have moved to POE have seen major benefits, especially in the ability to run devices such as VOIP phones, access points and other appliances without the need for a wall wart to provide power. 17. Salesforce.com Rising from the ashes of the failed ASP market of the late 1990s, Salesforce.com proved that companies would run vital enterprise business applications-even CRM and sales force automation-over the web. 18. Social networks They may seem like a big waste of time, but social networks have had a significant effect on the way people and businesses connect and communicate. 19. Treo Looking at it today, the Treo may seem like just another smartphone. But the early Treo set the stage for and was very influential in the development of modern smartphones. Any phone today that isn't an iPhone or a new phone directly influenced by the iPhone owes a huge debt to the Treo (and even the iPhone is influenced by the Treo). 20. Twitter Twitter is a waste of time. I'll just put that in my Facebook status, and on the status update in my corporate collaboration system. Mmm. Maybe Twitter has been massively influential and changed the way we all communicate. 21. Red Hat Enterprise Linux Coming into the decade, Linux was already a hot commodity, but it wasn't until Red Hat launched the buttoned-down and subscription-priced Enterprise variant of its Linux distribution that Linux was truly ready-both in terms of road map stability and of business model-truly to storm the enterprise. 22. VMware Virtualization has been around for more than 10 years, but it was in the last decade that it really took off. And, to a large degree, this drive to virtualize was '' driven by VMware. Offering everything from simple-to-use products that let consumers run virtual machines to the most robust enterpriseclass virtualization platforms, VMware has made it possible to run whole farms of servers with very little hardware involved. 23. VOIP, Skype, SIP Like virtualization, voice over IP technologies have been around for more than 10 years. However, it's been only in the last 10 years that the technology has reached a real state of usability. Skype helped show consumers how cheap and easy voice calls can be from a PC, while SIP signaling eased standards based interoperability among vendors, opening the door for the integration of many different kinds of products into the communications mix. 24. Solaris 10 During the latter half of 'OOs, Sun Microsystems' Solaris 10 sat at the leading edge of operating system technologies, with unique capabilities that include Containers virtualization, Dtrace system instrumentation and the ZFS file system. Solaris 10 also helped put a stamp of inevitability on the x86-64 architecture and on open-source as-a-platform licensing strategy. 25. Windows XP With all of the recent hype about Windows 7-and with bad experiences that nearly every user has had at one time or another with Windows XP-it might be strange to see Vista's predecessor on any top tech list. But Windows XP is certainly the most dominant operating system of the decade. And when Vista proved to be a disappointment, a majority of users and businesses were happy to stick with Windows XP (and many still are). WEEK FEBRUARY 1, 2010 ======================= __________________________________________________ Wxforum Member Information InfoPage http://nxport.com/mailman/listinfo/wxforum Settings http://nxport.com/mailman/options/wxforum Posting Address: Wxforum@nxport.com