Classic!

The bottom line is that the average consumer and business person uses on a regular basis applications that are not available through the browser and realistically cannot be replicated effectively as web-based applications.

Techies (and wannabe techies) are out of touch with what consumers really want and need.

Let me give you an example.

My girlfriend recently bought a computer. She’s not a techie. At no point during our shopping experience did she ask about Linux or lower-cost software alternatives.

In fact, she had gone out of her way to purchase Office 2008 Professional before purchasing her new computer and specifically asked if Windows Vista supported it when she saw that Windows XP was not available. Ironically, she ran Open Office on her old machine and decided to invest in Microsoft Office.

This is the average consumer experience. Consumers are comfortable with Windows. For all of its flaws (of which there are many), it works and fulfills the needs of the average consumer and business person.

Consumers will change their behaviors and preferences when they’re given a need to.

Right now, proponents of Thin Client 2.0 (the web as the OS) are promoting a solution in search of a problem.

If he wants to dumb himself down to make things sound more important and sexy than they are, that’s his choice.

The definition of “operating system” is not in question. What an operating system is and what an operating system does is well-established and anybody who has a basic understanding of computers knows that. There is no debate here unless Michael Arrington or Marc Andreesen can boot up my computer with nothing more than Chrome.