Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age

The Financial Times looks at Microsoft’s launch of its new operating system, Vista, pointing out that the new release “also reflects a deeper change in how the software business works,” most notably that the new model is “software as service.” This means that software is no longer a physical thing that comes in a box and then gets loaded to your computer, but software is instead a web application (such as Google). This really does signal a sea change for the software industry, as well as for consumers. Personally, I remember my boss buying Pagemaker back in the early ’90s, and it came on something like six floppy discs that had to all be loaded onto the PC in the right order. It was a laborious process. But now, not only do CDs and downloading make getting programs much easier, but the programs themselves will disappear, leaving in their place websites which will perform the needed functions instead. In terms of the “print is dead” debate, it just goes to show that yet another physical product — software — is beginning to go away, and if you’ve ever been in a computer store looking for a computer program, the racks and racks of them look an awful lot like books. Those packages are going away the same way that books will go away in an increasingly digital future. What remains instead will be the “service.” Jeff Jarvis has already said that journalism isn’t a product, it’s a service, and soon we’ll be saying the same thing about long-form non-fiction or even novels.

From the story: “The moment also marks a turning point in the history of the world’s biggest software company, as Microsoft turns its attention more fully towards a future software industry that is likely to look very different.”

FT.com: Vista marks end of an era for Microsoft