Cloud computing, virtualization and mobile devices take the 'proprietary' out of computing--at least for the consumer. Just think of the possibilities.
I am regularly confronted by Windows NT users who are overwhelmed by how much
information they can collect and process using the Windows NT Event Viewer. It is so nice, they
maintain, that occurrences (events) are sorted by system, system security, and applications, and
that entries can be filtered and searched.