Patrick Logan links to Steve Loughran talking about CORBA:

Gnome is built on Corba. You can tell that by changing your hostname and noting how you can't start any apps by double clicking on the icons. That is an ORB at work, if ever I saw one.

And then finds Miguel de Icaza thinking RESTful thoughts:

I have been considering the implementation of a system that would replace D-BUS and CORBA with a simple HTTP framework.

Heh. We tried that - SOAP. With any luck, take two will be smarter. On the other hand, if it runs true to form, it will start out simple and then end up like (insert your least favorite ditributed RPC system here)...