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Software prediction roundup for 2008

Nick

Nick

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crystal ball logo2008 is finally here and we’re at a time of year when we all wonder what life has in store for us. I was interested to see what people were saying we might expect to see in terms of news software and downloads in 2008 and found a number of interesting posts and opinions.

Tech blogger Daniel Lewis has an interesting prediction regarding a new operating system called Plan 9. Plan 9 has in fact been in development since the 1980’s but Lewis predicts that 2008 could be the year when it finally challenges Linux as a free operating system. Meanwhile in the world of Web 2.0 he urges readers to keep an eye on a possible rival to YouTube called Seesmic plus information sharing project Twine both of which are currently available by Beta invite only.

ChannelWeb takes a look at software giant Microsoft’s prospects for 2008. One piece of good news is that they’ve extended the Windows XP Professional deadline to June 2008. This means that if you’re ordering a new PC, you can still opt to choose XP rather than the newer Vista operating system although as it phases out, expect to see an increasing number of Vista optimisers on Softonic.

Bruce Byfield at Datamation predicts that Java will become completely free after Sun opened-up 95% of the code in 2007. Byfield predicts that the remaining 5% – constituting at least a million lines of code – will either be “worked-out” by programmers or released by Sun itself once it has solved contractual problems with third party developers it has licensed it to. However, I’m inclined to agree with Yakov Fain that the heaviness of Java will mean that it actually becomes less popular with small developers although it will remain popular with large enterprises. He also predicts that VoIP apps such as Skype will begin to look increasingly dated as Web 2.0 solutions such as Ribbit take-off.

These are only a small selection of the predictions being offered for 2008. For me, the development of Web 3.0 is one to watch (something I’ll look at in my next post) but I’d be interested to hear what you think or would like to see appear in 2008.

Nick

Nick

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