Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Economist's Technology Predictions For 2008

Posted by kdawson on from the prediction-is-hard-especially-about-the-future dept.

mrcgran notes an article in The Economist with three technology predictions for 2008. Normally they're pretty good on technology, and the predictions seem sound enough, but the article contains a couple of bloopers. "1. Surfing will slow: The internet is not about to grind to a halt, but as more and more users clamber aboard to download music, video clips and games... surfing the web is going to be more like traveling the highways at holiday time. You'll get there, eventually, but the going won't be great. 2. Surfing will detach: Internet will doubtless be as popular among mobile-internet surfers as among their sedentary cousins. 3. Surfing — and everything else computer-related — will open: Rejoice: the embrace of 'openness' by firms that have grown fat on closed, proprietary technology is something we'll see more of in 2008... Since the verdict against SCO, Linux has swiftly become popular in small businesses and the home, largely the doing of Ubuntu 7.10. And because it is free, Linux become the operating system of choice for low-end PCs. Neither Microsoft nor Apple can compete at the new price points being plumbed by companies looking to cut costs."

3 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Cite your sources by muftak · · Score: 3, Informative

    90% of all email is SPAM, but email accounts for a very small proportion of internet traffic.

  2. Re:Cite your sources by nurb432 · · Score: 2, Informative

    If i use the % on my personal domain, their number slightly low. I get more like 95%, from both direct to nonsence addresses on my domain, and indirect via 'replies' from stupid mailers that dont use spam rules before they send back replies on nonexistent addresses. I see about 2000 spam messages a day.

    At the office on a different more well known domain, we sometimes hit 10000 messages per HOUR.. ( and it promptly hoses our outside unix mail server and anti-spam engine, then freaks out exchange when it cant send to the unix server.. )

    SPAM is bad. Really bad.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  3. Re:Dunno abou tthe Exchnage bit in the article... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    So where is this mythical replacement I just read about? Would someone like to point it out for me?


    There are several candidates for you to choose from:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-Xchange
    http://www.open-xchange.com/EN/header/home.html
    http://www.open-xchange.com/header/products/openxchange_express_edition.html

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbra
    http://www.zimbra.com/about/
    http://www.zimbra.com/products/

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolab
    http://www.kolab.org/
    http://www.kolab.org/screenshots.html

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfresco_(software)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalix

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group-Office

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EGroupWare

    You take take your pick at all kinds of levels of complexity and capability.

    Most of them will happily support Windows, OSX and Linux clients. Most of them are $0 per client.