Maybe it's me but I see a huge difference between hardware centralization and control centralization. I could really care less about hardware centralization. Mainframe, mid-range, mini's or clusters of cheap cpus - don't care. Just as long as it stays a bazaar and I never have to go back to dropping off punch cards or picking up reams of 11x22 fanfold paper. To me, that's where the circle always needed to be broken - the Data Center Brahman need not re-apply.