# OS Future..?



## ekim68 (Jul 8, 2003)

_The end run around the OS is underway_

The operating system may be losing its luster. In fact, you could argue that the operating systemLinux, OS X and Windowswill become an application that just happens to boot first. And hardware vendors are on to the OSs diminishing importance.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9682&tag=nl.rSINGLE


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Sucks to lose your Internet connection in the future, no?


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## Plantsman (Jan 20, 2008)

I just wonder if everything is going rental, is it going to cost serious money? I've got about 150 programs installed at the moment. Wouldn't fancy paying for all of them on a monthly basis. Maybe my sense of panic is premature though. Windows 7 O/S is due out next year so maybe it'll be quite a while yet.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

JohnWill said:


> Sucks to lose your Internet connection in the future, no?


That's one of the main reasons that I doubt this is all going to happen soon. The infrastructure is going to have to be far more reliable than it is. It would be a nightmare for any business to lose their internet for even a day.

IT people who are responsible for setting up reliable systems are not going to be happy losing control over the main functions of the company network. If it breaks, they can't even fix it. I, for one, will have to be dragged kicking and screaming into that kind of future. But, like many things that are seemingly inevitable, human psychology may end up making the final decisions here. There is a strong incentive to have things "right here".

Remember the video phone? The idea has been around for 50 years. People didn't want them, despite all the Jetson-like shows that made them look like the inevitable future. No one wants to dress up and comb their hair just to make a call.


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## tomdkat (May 6, 2006)

Elvandil said:


> That's one of the main reasons that I doubt this is all going to happen soon. The infrastructure is going to have to be far more reliable than it is. It would be a nightmare for any business to lose their internet for even a day.


I don't know, Sun Microsystems does something like this today. In fact, I setup one of their workstations designed for employees who work from home. The workstation looks similar to a current iMac and it requires an Internet conection to work. Once you login, you get a full-blown GUI desktop and use the system as if you were physically in the office. I suspect they are using XDMCP connections to fast Sun servers to provide the remote access for employees. Regardless, I was surprised at how easy it was to get the system up and running and the lady I setup the workstation for has NO idea about the underlying OS at all. I did some poking around to find some things out purely because I'm a geek but if I were to ask her anything about the underlying OS, she wouldn't be able to tell me and she really doesn't care (nor should she).

Peace...


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

I'm not saying that it will never be used. It may be the ideal solution for some. But the day that you and I sit down in our homes and use something like a terminal to access all our programs seems a long way off to me. And that may even come sooner than large companies finding it reliable enough, at least in some areas.

But then I had a friend one time that thought that the reason we never got any radio signals from other galaxy's civilizations was very simple: They all used cable.


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## tomdkat (May 6, 2006)

Elvandil said:


> I'm not saying that it will never be used. It may be the ideal solution for some. But the day that you and I sit down in our homes and use something like a terminal to access all our programs seems a long way off to me. And that may even come sooner than large companies finding it reliable enough, at least in some areas.


I think the computing platform Google seems to be developing (look at the web-based services and apps they provide now and in the future) will make "dumb terminals" come back around. Of course, our traditional PCs could be replaced with something like a network computer or similar. Or, we could keep our traditional PC and just not run apps locally installed.

Keep in mind, as content providers and service providers "ramp up" to make more services and content available over the Internet, applications like the one we're discussing in this thread will be able to exploit the infrastructure (at least at the ISP level) changes going on right now.

The overall concept being discussed here really isn't anything new but I do think the blog is discussing the future of the *desktop OS* vs the "OS" in general. 



> But then I had a friend one time that thought that the reason we never got any radio signals from other galaxy's civilizations was very simple: They all used cable.


Comcast cable? 

Peace...


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## ekim68 (Jul 8, 2003)

JohnWill said:


> Sucks to lose your Internet connection in the future, no?


As an aside, at times I use the Ubuntu live cd to boot and ignore the hard drive. It loads all the drivers I need to go online. Everything works but the flash and streaming things...But, otherwise, it does everything I need when I'm on...I don't always have to watch the Youtube-thing....So, what I'm saying is, that internet access is the key, not the OS....


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## Gulo Luseus (May 12, 2007)

There are several huge problems with this. I recall MS on a number of occasions putting forward this idea, and the rest of the worls saying no, dont think so. As for the marvellous things, wow! A computer that will wake up and answer the phone! I have two of then already.One is called an answer machine, the other a girlfriend. 
t in all seriousness, people dont want this. If you have to go online to get to anything, you become a servant of the telephone line, and if its rental, same thing- you have bills to pay, and can you ensure it will be available when you want it? Too many possible bugs, for my liking


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