Computers ten years ago.

Google is extremely powerful, they just bought DoubleClick (advertising company) for three and something billion dollars. The concerns about Google's intentions and what they do with the information they have about us all is growing. Microsoft launched Vista a few months ago, it wasn't that well received really. I'm switching to Gentoo Linux (maybe, I haven't decided which distro yet) soon, and will probably use the Gnome desktop. Macs are growing in popularity and Microsoft doesn't seem to be doing that well. Digg.com and Slashdot are big on the internet, Viacom is suing Google's YouTube for $1,000,000,000 for copyright infringement. Web 2.0 is taking off with people debating whether or not web applications can replace desktop ones. Things like Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Gmail, Google Reader, the web version of Photoshop that's going to be released soon and YouOS are some good examples. Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer 7 are the main browsers. DRM and piracy are big issues right now, with RIAA and MPAA suing people left, right and centre. Allofmp3.com is the alternative, offering DRM-free music for one cent per megabyte. Naturally, they are under pressure and are looking like they may be forced out of business soon. iPods are the main MP3 player out there. Your current computer's specs: Windows XP, 1gb of RAM, 1800MHz AMD Sempron processor, 100gb hard drive, 15'4" screen (1280x800 resolution). Standard computer's specs: Windows Vista, 1gb of RAM, 2GHz dual-core processor, 100gb hard drive, 15'4" screen. Good computer's specs: 2-4gb of RAM, 3GHz dual-core processor, 500gb hard drive, 21-30" screen (maybe multiple monitors). Best computer's specs (that I know of): 16gb of RAM, 3GHz processor with 8 cores, 1tb hard drive. Bearing in mind that that's pretty incredible.