For a long time, IT's options for how to outfit a new employee had all the thrill of the "paper or plastic?" choice. For IT, it was a "laptop or desktop?" world. Get ready for a change.It will change dramatically and do so in just a couple years, predicts Joe Hernick in his "Radical Desktops" article. Microsoft Windows will remain the business environment of choice for many years to come, he says. What gets tossed out is the largely cookie-cutter approach we've had to how employees get everything that goes into that Windows experience. Hernick writes:

... the only thing certain about the desktop of the future is that no single, dominant computing approach will emerge over the next few years. Much as the data center is being transformed under the influence of virtualization and externally hosted offerings, the idea of a 'standard' corporate computing platform will vary based on organizational, departmental, and user requirements.

In addition to desktop virtualization, there's expanding wireless connectivity, more powerful smartphones, increasingly powerful Web applications, and more all coming together to thrust new desktop options on companies.

Not every company will embrace a new approach to employees' desktops. But with this coming surge of choices, every IT team needs to spend time considering it. Is there a better way? Perhaps not, in any given situation. But increasingly, it won't be for a lack of choices.

What do you think lies ahead in businesses -- radical desktops, or more of the same? Please share your ideas.

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