I believe the computers of the future will look and taste like lobster tail and function much like a 1952 copy of The Grapes of Wrath.

Don't get too excited, skynet will wipe us out long before we'll get hover-computers and lightsaber computers.

John Conner, come with me if you want to live.

Join up again?  What do you mean again?  As far as I know Apple and Microsoft have always been arch enemies like the Hulk and Abomination respectively.

I believe that the future of computers is definately quantum computing.  Basically current processors are reaching the physical limits of what they achieve due to heating and pathway size.  That's why you're seeing more and more multiple processor systems rather than much faster processors.

The basic idea with current processors is that your processor takes in a series of votage on/off signals which are interpreted as binary (0's and 1's) and then those are put together make higher logic and so on.  If you have 2, 3 or 4 processors then you can process 2, 3, or 4 on/offs at a time.  But each processor an only process one single bit of information at a time.

With quantum computing the idea is that rather that using voltage signals as on/offs, you use atoms.  Atoms have different and very specific energy states.  These states could be interpreted as on/offs.  But the advantage of this is that rather than having 2, 3 or 4, you have in the neighborhood of 10^24 of them available.  So it is concievable that you could process almost any complex logic instantaneously.  Processing speed would be unlimited.  Processor size would be microscopic.

There are still some pretty large engineering hurdles to overcome to make quantum computers but the fact that it is physically possible means that it will happen one day.  I don't know if Microsoft or Apple will have anything to do with it but whoever comes out with these will be the future of computers.

It would be nice if we could jump into our computers in the future and play in our own mmorpgs with friends and people around the world. Kind of like if you've seen the WoW episode of South Park. I think that would be awesome. 

Virtual Reality was a hot item for a short period of time.. I don't know why it didn't stick around more.  I think it will come back.

I think IE6 is the future.  Because it will stick around 'till the future.

Maybe something along the lines of Minority Report (minus the psychic beings).

If Apple bought out Microsoft, the computers will become "prettier", bubbly and frilly(like the MAC's now). One plus would be no one would have a dull computer anymore. If more MAC's were used the hackers have a field day with apple because now they don't waste their time with computers used by so few people. As a hacker this would be very exciting and new, they would love that.

If Microsoft bought Apple they would just gain more US PC market share(not much, but more money for Microsoft, they don't care) "Another company bites the dust, YES!!" - Microsoft's Theme Song

I agree that Microsoft and Apple will always be arch enemies, that will be THE DAY when one buys out the other. Someone would probably cry Monopoly and sue that company. That's my guess by how things are going now. Another company would have to rise and balance this threat of "Monopoly". Who's it gonna be?

If Microsoft and Apple were EVER to join forces it would be to battle against evil and we all know that is not going to happen anytime soon.  

I'll tell you what they won't be like. They won't be exactly like the computer you're using at this precise moment in time Darin. That is of course if by "Future" you mean 1000 years from now, because you'll more then likely be dead. And we all know ghosts and technology do not mix well.

Casey is absolutely right.  Ghosts and technology don't mix well at all because where ghosts are is where spider webs are and nobody is going to sit at a computer that has spider webs on it because spider webs are way too scary.