Robert X. Cringely Weighs in on 2006

Simon80 writes "With the beginning of a new year coming another set of 15 predictions from Robert X. Cringely as to how the tech world will shape up in 2006, preceded by a review of how his 2005 predictions turned out. Most of this year's predictions cover well known tech companies, with a few that are about specific technologies like WiMax, media center PCs, and VOIP."

Comments

Might as well be a Palm Reader

[xXBondsXx]

I like most of this guy's article, but some of the things he says are too vague, and anyone with common sense would say the same things. For example:

I was right when I said AMD would give Intel further fits.
Two huge companies in dead competition would give each other fits? Obviously that is bound to happen on some degree over the course of the year. Also, he never really defined "fits", just some kind of conflict that is bound to happen when two major corporations are competing in the same market.

I predicted the RIAA would continue to sue music lovers and they have, despite the fact that it doesn't help anyone and actually hurts everyone to do so.
What would the RIAA do, stop suing? I don't know of any other way to prosecute violators of copyright law besides offing them like the mafia. Again vague and full of common sense.

Cringely (the author) did make some great predictions that came true this year (e.g. PS3, VoIP, TV networks embracing video downloads). I think I might have read his article last year and enjoyed it also. Personally, I would like to see a lower accuracy rate and less vague predictions. However, most people will be fooled like customers to a palm reader

Re:Can we get a Cringely Topic?

[sketerpot]

You could try, you know, ignoring them.

That will not happen

[James_Aguilar]

2006 does have the potential to be a great year for the linux desktop, assuming that a big hardware company gives it a chance.

Corrected by inlining a constant: 2006 does have the potential to be a great year for the linux desktop, assuming FALSE.

Corrected even further by logical equivalence: 2006 does not have the potential to be a great year for the linux desktop.

I love Linux, but it's not going on to anyone's desktop any time soon. There are many reasons (No one profits from putting it on the computers sold at computer companies, it's still not ready for a lot of the hardware that's out there, it doesn't always "Just work"). Eventually, it will get to the point where unfortunate things happen rarely, but I am a power user and I still sometimes have to wrestle with it, so I would be reluctant to think of what others might do if they were like my parents.

Re:Can we get a Cringely Topic?

[revscat]

Oh for crying out loud get over yourself. Cringely is intelligent, interesting, and knows the industry better than most. If you don't like it when /. posts links to his columns then freaking hit the scroll wheel and quit your whining.

CHRIST people are babies around here sometimes. +5 Informative my ass.