I don't just mean a frustrating monster that doesn't do what you want! I'm afraid I mean something more technical, well slightly.

Somewhere in the past couple of years our line of business applications (Sorry, techy phrase! LineOfBusiness means the key applications that your business depends on) became polished enough that they now do what we want. Yes, even Microsoft web versions are actually good enough now... even Google apps have all had a refresh recently.

What does that mean? Well, it means we just need an operating system to deliver a web browser application...(Techy Phrase (x2): The operating system is the organisational software on a computer that lets you access the real applications that you want. So OS X on an Apple Mac, or Windows on a PC, and a Web browser lets you access the World Wide Web e.g. Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox....). The websites that serve up our line of business applications used to do a poor job because the underlying software from the operating system and broweser wasn't smart enough.

But now it is, and see how Microsoft certainly knows it by grasping the opportunity with both hands. Microsoft clearly sees the future as web applications... and yes really, will abandon the dependency on Windows.

What!? Impossible! Microsoft abandon Windows? Surely Microsoft was built on Windows. It has been the greatest cash cow ever created? But I am quite sure on this prediction. Mobile phones do not run Windows. That Nokia purchase was one of the most expensive fat-Fs ever so establish definitely that Windows on phones is not happening. But MS learnt that it was the wrong battle anyway. The platforms are preliferating, so many form sizes from phones to giant tablets, and internet connectivity is still increasing.

So the new battle ground is not the Operating System but neither is it about the choice of which web browser to use, that doesn't matter any more either. The battle ground is now about killer applications, delivered on any platform or device, to any browser on any operating system. Look at Google.com, which lots of people are confused into thinking is a software application ("Can you just open up Google"), when really it is "just" a website app set as the opening document page within a web browser. Or look at Amazon, or NetFlix or LinkedIn. These companies are peddling information, for pleasure, for business, for whatever reason.

What happens next? Well, just for once, the technical complexity of our computers becomes simpler. inmost cases, our old WIndows laptops that used to run lots of "full fat" locally installed software can be blasted freshly with just a clean installation of Windows and antimalware software. And nothing much else needs to be added. Immediately disclaimer here is if you need number crunching power, so high performance gaming, or throwing around huge CAD drawings in 3D then you will always work with local software, although I wouldn't be surprise if we soon see PCs connected as a pair, to combine the processing firepower.

For those of you who develop software that requires installation onto your client's actual computers, think very carefully about the way forwards.