这个问题来自于对过去50年左右计算领域各种进展的评论。
其他一些与会者请我把这个问题作为一个问题向整个论坛提出。
这里的基本思想不是抨击事物的现状，而是试图理解提出基本新思想和原则的过程。
我认为我们在大多数计算领域都需要真正的新想法，我想知道最近已经完成的任何重要而有力的想法。如果我们真的找不到他们，那么我们应该问“为什么?”和“我们应该做什么?”
当前回答
The mouse - There have been posts about human interaction. To me, the mouse was the gateway to human interaction. Without it, we'd still be typing and not clicking in dragging, even with our fingers. GUI - Complimented the mouse perfectly. I work in an environment where an as400 is the backend of one of our major apps. Yeah.. Interesting stuff but it just reminds me of the screens 'Bill Gates' is working in in the movie 'Pirates of Silicon Valley' even though that's not what it was. To me, 1 and 2 are the reason anybody, including grandpas and grandmas can use a computer. Excel / spreadsheets - Someone mentioned this before but it's work mentioning again. It's so user friendly and is a great entry point for non-technical users to try their hand at simple programming concepts when performing calculations on cells. Granted it came out before 1980, but the versions post 1980 are when the technology in spreadsheets evolved. Internet (of course) - Not sure how people wrote code without it! Don't flame me for repeating because this belongs on every list. INTELLISENSE - LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!!!
其他回答
u盘/ u盘
USB key是软盘的有效替代品，软盘在简单传输方面仍然优于CD或DVD。
作为Debian用户，我会投票给包管理。它让OSX和Windows 7看起来像是原始的业余玩物。
但是由于前面已经提到了包管理，我将投票给x。网络透明窗口服务器使许多应用程序成为可能。能够无缝地在同一屏幕上并行地调用在不同计算机上运行的程序真是太棒了。
这在80年代后期更令人印象深刻。
第一台真正的多媒体个人电脑，Amiga:第一台32位抢先处理多任务的个人电脑，第一台硬件图形加速，第一台多声道声音，在许多方面，它比现在流行的多核、多兆赫的Windows盒子机更有用、更强大。
软件专利
量子计算的数学在1980年之前就已经出现了，但硬件还没有出现，而且在未来许多年里可能在物理和经济上都不可行。
