Intel buys McAfee. Tech world agog.

Okay, so the tech world will continue to spin following Intel's $7.7 billion cash (!) deal to buy security vendor McAfee. But it is a neat inflection point all the same.

I call it the beginning of the Security-on-Silicon era, and despite the fact that the average Best Buy customer usually doesn't give deals like this a second thought, this is one event that, more than any other this year, will have a tremendous influence on the technology we all use in the years to come.

My $0.02. What's yours?