Happy new year and all that jazz. In the grand tradition of making one’s opinions known regardless of whether anyone is interested, here are my predictions for 2007.
Free and Open Source Software
F/OSS will keep growing and spreading.
Microsoft
Microsoft will keep making money, and Bill Gates will keep getting richer, despite disappointing Vista adoption and outright disastrous Zune sales. Vista will probably not really gain momentum until computer vendors stop offering XP altogether.
Apple
Apple will keep doing its thing. It may announce a cell phone, or it may not. Regardless, a lot of pundits will be left looking like idiots for a little while (depending on which side of the argument they favored), but they will quickly recover and find something else to spout uninformed gibberish about. The various iPod models will keep selling like hotcakes. John Dvorak will go blue in the face predicting Apple’s demise.
Google will quietly launch another half-dozen cool services, and their existing services will keep getting cooler. Google will not start selling desktop computers, operating systems or fully contained server farms housed in shipping containers, though Robert X. Cringely will go blue in the face predicting that they will, and his speculations will be widely reported as fact by uninformed journalists worldwide. Later, Robert X. Cringely will go blue in the face predicting the exact opposite; even later, he will go blue in the face pointing out that he was right the second time.
SCO
Unless their lawyers manage to delay procedings even further, SCO will get its day in court. Very shortly thereafter, it will get its ass handed to it on a plate. If there’s any justice in the world, this event will be followed by a spate of legal action against SCO officers by irate investors.
Me
This time next year, I will be a year older, though probably not a whole lot wiser.
The rest of the world
Same ol’, same ol’.
What did you expect?