Despite the odds against Google Chrome OS, Microsoft's two-pillar strategy for maintaining its software stronghold no longer appears indestructible going into the next decade. "Windows 8" cannot be a near-term fix, if there should even be a "Windows 8." The public is starting to question the need for an operating system designed to manage a myriad of hardware components that many users don't even have. Windows remains a monolithic remnant of 1980s technology, in an era when any company with resources and wherewithal that dared to start over from scratch could create a wholly new OS architecture that assembles itself, using the Web, to fit precisely the requirements of the computer that's using it at that time. A rethought Windows or other x86 operating system would not have to support technology that isn't there, especially if it isn't even being produced any more. As quad-core and six-core and soon eight-core processors don't seem to be making everyday work all that much faster for consumers, Microsoft's value propositions for Windows and Office make less and less sense.

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