Back in the 1980s when the personal computer was in its infancy, software was not readily available for many applications.
It was not uncommon to manually type in pages of code for even the most rudimentary programs. It took hours of entering archaic code mnemonics and thousands of numbers of machine code. As you might imagine, a lot of time was also spent proofreading!
Over a period of several years the personal computer evolved into a household appliance, pre-packaged “shrink-wrap” software became readily available. One would shop for software just as they would any other retail product.
As more and more users became connected to the Internet, the delivery method of choice for software shifted to “download and install.” It was fast, efficient, and always provided the latest version of the product.
Once again, as Internet speeds become faster and faster, there have been another software metamorphosis that is moving users away from the locally installed program to online applications that handle most of the processing on a remote server, while providing the user simple interface that interacts with the remote program.
Call it the “Cloud” or whatever you want, the idea of hording programs and data on your hard drive is becoming as archaic as typing in code manually. As we move away from the “big screen” to the handheld device, the trend towards remote operations will become the norm.
I guess the fact that I have been fully immersed software development from “the beginning” gives me a unique perspective:
I am ASTOUNDED at how far we have come in the last thirty years!
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