Charles Simonyi and Mitch Kapor invented the software that helped kick-start the PC revolution. Now they're at it again, investing their fortunes in ventures aimed at finally creating programs that do what you want them to and never crash. In a future envisioned by these iconoclasts and a growing body of companies, including IBM and Sun Microsystems, programs repair themselves, and the desktop metaphor is replaced by computer interfaces that put information at your fingertips depending on what job needs doing, not what application you're running.

The days when it was feasible to build a bridge, trade a stock, or prepare a report without software are long gone. But that doesn't mean we have to settle for today's typical applications, which have an infuriating tendency to fail when we need them most. Indeed, it's hard not to share Kapor's view that the average software user "really gets screwed." And once you've read what he and his fellow radicals plan to do about that, you may share their impatience. Welcome to the new software revolution.