Cloud computing does have some good points (if I'm understanding what I've read about it lately correctly)...

No user software installation, not being tied to one particular platform or application, being able to access all sorts of computing resources from the 'cloud' (I need to do a little more research on how you can purchase processor power, that just seems sort of far fetched to me ).

Big game players like Microsoft will have to think of something quick I think, if this does come to pass mainstream. Seems it would sort of level the playing field, Microsoft won't have the monopoly on almost everything anymore.

There already are a couple 'cloud computing' applications out there; for example Google Docs where you can work on documents on line without worrying about having a word program on your computer. Others can view the documents without also having to worry about having the right word program on their computer. I think another one is Zoho.com .

The problem I have with it all is (from what I'm getting from it) the fact that private information will be more readily available.