The wild west was actually a very short period of American history spanning about 40 years. We have immortalized this time because rugged individuals tamed and conquered the land. It came to a close, an organized society came in and imposed law and order and fenced in the prairies. It still remains in our hearts captured by countless books and movies.
The personal computing wild west will also span about 40 years. We are already seeing memoirs (Steve Jobs is and example) of the larger than life cowboys who roamed the plains. It will follow the pattern of every other era. When the calculators first came out spurred by the HP35 splash onto the scene, there was every imaginable version available. New and improved versions seemed to appear monthly. After a while a consensus of what a calculator should look like and what it should do emerged. Collectively we realized that it was not necessary to have a new definition of what 2+2 equals with every new release level. I remember giving my new HP45 calculator to my younger sister (also an engineer) and asking her to add 2+2. She failed because the reverse polish notation used on a HP45 makes the keystrokes 2 ENTER 2 PLUS. The modern solar cell powered calculator I use now cost $30 and has been doing the same functions as my HP (no reverse polish) for the last 15 years. The wild west in calculators came to an end.
The same evidence of the end of the personal computing wild west is showing. Open office is every bit as functional as other office suites. I suspect that we will also get tired of daily updates in operating systems that corrupt the other software that we are trying to use by separating computers dedicated to tasks from the unpredictable internet environment. Windows NT (the industrial XP version) is extremely stable as long as it is separated from the web. I suspect that hardware and software innovation which lock in program and operating systems so they cannot change will show up shortly. Yes
the wild west is being fenced in.