The computer industry is plagued by the need to constantly come up with the next hot new thing.  It can drive a person crazy trying to keep up with the newest trends, the newest hardware, the newest software… not to mention the drag on your pocket book.

For the past few years I have not noticed anything completely revolutionary coming out with computers.  Yeah sure home networks had blossomed, and that is continuing, buying songs and movies on your computer to watch them on your TV, computer, iPod or whatever is cool… but there hasn’t been that one thing.. that “I GOTTA HAVE THAT OR MY LIFE WILL SUCK” product in a very long time.

In fact, truth be told, if no further operating system releases (like Vista for example) were to come out, or productivity software such as office never had a new version… we would all do just fine with what we currently have.

Really, think about it, what really can you improve on with a word processor that hasn’t already been done.  Microsoft updated office with their 2007 release and the major improvement (so they said) was in the interface.  Well, improvement for whom?  I’ve used office for years and all that the improvement really did was make me work harder at doing what I already had been doing with Office 2003.

I have a short list of suggestions for the HOT new thing.  I would pay for the following things, and pay happily.

1) A version of windows that I don’t have to reboot every couple of days because it’s slowing down, or my applications are just not working right

2) A web browser that let’s me see anything I surf to on the web without having to download or install some kind of add on…

3) File managers in operating systems that actually make it easy for you to find that stupid file you just downloaded from a site…

4) Programs and or Operating systems that don’t have so many holes in them that virus programs would just die out, like what we try to do with real infections… Polio anyone?

5) I just want this stuff to work, work nicely with other programs, and be easier so that I don’t have to learn it myself so that I can explain it to family members or friends anymore.  I didn’t go to school to be a teacher…

I guess what I’m wanting is a solid working computer, with great software that works out of the box. I don’t want to have my computer that I bought 6 months ago to be ‘behind the times’, needing to have a new video card to play a game, or adding more storage because I can’t seem to manage the amount of data I have now…  The hot new thing should be no hot new thing. 

Fix what we have now, keep it from crashing, being infected, phished and generally messed up by just being connected to the net!!

Which just reminded me of the issue of email, oh, email… such a cool idea in the beginning, but now it’s just a pain!  How many times do you go to your email thinking you have mail from someone who wants have an exchange with you, only to find out that you have some millions of dollars set aside in a secret account in some 3rd world nation, and you can have it as long as you send in some money to cover the expense of transferring it to you..

FIX EMAIL. 

Ugh, Computers would not be so Stupid if we stopped the hype and glamour of them and just had Computers that we could use without worrying about losing pictures, files and our minds.

But then, what would the marketing folks do?  Hmmm… that’s an interesting dilema.