Well, the BBC got wind of a Microsoft project that’s been talked about for a while in some tech circles.

Codename: Midori (everything needs a codename, right?) is what looks to be the new direction in a post-Windows world. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Microsoft dominates PCs all over the world. All this legacy code and thinking has come with some significant baggage when it comes to the way that people now want to use technology. More and more I find myself wanting to be able to access everything from a central location instead of emailing myself reminders to do things on the computer when I get home. Virtualization, Terminal Services, Remote Desktop, GoToMyPC, VNC, Box, Orb, Google Docs, synchronization software (remember the ‘briefcase’ icon on old laptops?), online project and client management software, even online email access… The list goes on and on of software and services that are either centrally hosted or that provide ways to easily access systems that have the stuff you want.

Thin clients were a great idea for corporations in the past, but have been waning in popularity - until recently. It may not be too long before you can access anything you want from work, home, phone, or maybe even public-access internet kiosks.

So… do you think the death of the OS as we know it is inevitable? Is Google going to end up dominating the new computing world with an online version of an operating system? Are the computers of the future just going to be dumb terminals that can only access the internet?