True, bandwidth will be the barrier. In that aspect, there are probably other countries that are more advanced than the US.

HP claims to have a solution for remote graphics. How well it works I don't know. I do know that it's something folks have been working on since the 80s when a company called SunRiver was doing remote graphics over serial connections, so I'm sure developments will continue.

Software developers, and perhaps other 'creatives,' may tend to be more possessive about their boxes, but I don'r know that the requirements are any different - apart from the aforementioned bandwidth. I believe that Adobe already has basic photo editing online. It's not Photoshop yet, but that will likely come eventually. I haven't read anything about Microsoft doing an online version of Visual Studio yet, but again, the basic requirements of development, text editing, compiling and working with mainly static graphics wouldn't seem to preclude it. I didn't even particularly like having 'my' code on a network share, so I think the main barrier may be cultural. IT will love the extra control and even coders and doodlers will appreciate being able to grab any laptop or tablet and go work outside.

Big companies may prefer subscriptions to buying all those copies of Photoshop or VS, not to mention upgrading all those workstations to handle a new OS. Startups can get in for a lower initial cost. Maybe some software companiew will even do rent to own - rent Maya for a year and it's yours.

I'm far from sanguine about the prospects - I'll stick with the PC as long as I can. More centralized control can be stifling, and you can be sure that various entities salivate at the prospect more traffic to surveil. I could be wrong but the factors seem to be converging in that direction and I'm sure old mainframers are chuckling at their ultimate revenge.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken