The world now uses a universal ^Java.*? virtual machine and a smarter windowing server which does not require pushing images over the wire. Thin clients are slowly but surely becoming the norm. Companies rent out computing power by the hour. x86 is declining. Microsoft is embracing Unix.

Have we been cursed by the ghost of Sun Microsystems?

I always think SUN was too early. I find chromeos to be the successor to their intent with Google actually even occupying their buildings today.