This is where we have real opportunity that didn't exist in the 90s. Back then, we had more diverse (and exotic) personal computing environments, but they weren

This is where we have real opportunity that didn't exist in the 90s. Back then, we had more diverse (and exotic) personal computing environments, but they weren't largely online and they had one other problem: incompatibilities. Today we don't worry as much about incompatibility, largely because we have widely accepted and used standards that we lacked back then. One could build a whole new personal computing machine and/or environment and as long as it implemented many of these standards it would be entirely usable (things like JSON, XML, etc). In fact, the only "application" one would need in such a system is a web browser (no small task, I know). That goes a long way for "bringing people in." There is lots of room for creativity at present but unfortunately little in the way of imagination or will.