"If computers of the kind I have advocated become the computers of the future, then computation may someday be organized as a public utility. We can envisage computing service companies whose subscribers are connected to them by telephone lines...
"The system could develop commercially in fairly interesting ways. Certain subscribers might offer services to other subscribers. One example is weather prediction. A weather-predicting company that is a subscriber to the a central computer predicts the weather but keeps the predictions in its private files. If you subscribe to its service, your programs can gain access to those files. You may even have weather predicting programs run for your benefit to answer your own particular questions... Other subscribers might furnish economic predictions. The computing utility could become the basis for a new and important industry." John McCarthy, in 1961
"At present, a newspaper, magazine or book is a package produced by a large organization. With the information utility, the physical production and distribution disappears, allowing a much smaller organization to put out the same packages of text and pictures. Moreover, the user does not face a one shot decision to buy Time or Newsweek. He will be able to read the ``cover'' or table of contents of each, read such items as strike his fancy, and the system will bill him for what he reads from each source. In fact, since the cost of keeping a file of information in the computer and making it publicly available will be small, even a high school student could compete with the New Yorker if he could write well enough and if word of mouth and mention by reviewers brought him to public attention. - John McCarthy in the 1970s
Sources: <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/10/gates_ozzie_memos/print.html>, <http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/future/hoter1.html>
"Does anyone really think that a company-owned platform is going to win here, that it won't be swamped by an open federated system of servers that peer, like email? If so, I'd like to hear why. We went through this exercise repeatedly in the tech industry; the lesson of history is clear -- closed systems have their place and time, at the beginning of a new layer, when users need simplicity over everything else, they serve as training wheels when everyone is a newbie. Eventually we grow out of the need to have our hands held and the freedom of open systems becomes attractive, and we jump." - Dave Winer
Source: <http://www.scripting.com/stories/2009/01/03/helpingFriendfeed.html>
"Nobody will doubt the value of openness for the mobile industry anymore." - Sean Moss-Pultz
Source: <http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.handhelds.openmoko.community/33625>
"as a thank you to our fans for your continued support, we are giving away the new nine inch nails album one hundred percent free, exclusively via nin.com.
"the music is available in a variety of formats including high-quality MP3, FLAC or M4A lossless at CD quality and even higher-than-CD quality 24/96 WAVE. your link will include all options - all free. all downloads include a PDF with artwork and credits.
'for those of you interested in physical products, fear not. we plan to make a version of this release available on CD and vinyl in july. details coming soon." - Nine Inch Nails
Source: <http://dl.nin.com/theslip>
"While Linux-based netbooks have not gained much consumer acceptance in the US, their success varies greatly by geographical market. In developing countries, Linux-based Eee PCs have fared better... Even if a majority of netbooks run Windows, the minority that run Linux are the most successful non-Windows, non-Macintosh consumer PCs in the industry in terms of penetration." --Forrester analyst J P Gownder.
Source: <http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2233381/netbooks-sales-driving-linux>