The Role of the Operating System In the Future

liteswap writes "Linux geeks love Linux and Windows mavens won't quit Microsoft -- but will we really care that much whether a machine is running Linux or Windows in future? As Sun announces Solaris support for Red Hat Linux applications, the need to specify the OS for a particular application will fade away, and the application and the x86 platform become the critical things -- at least that's what this Techworld feature argues..." Maybe a long time from now this will happen - but I don't see it happening RSN.

Comments

A Nice Dream

[MightyMartian]

The idea of removing the operating system as a major stumbling block to software development and distribution is nearly four decades old. I mean, the whole purpose behind Unix was to create a consistent platform that would make porting easy, and while the various distaff Unix and Unix-like operating systems certainly are more friendly towards porting than the older systems, for complex software it's still a difficult and time-consuming process.

The only development software that has come close to giving us platform independence are interpretative languages like Perl and Java, but that promise is still elusive. Java still seems to have stalled, and with projects like Mono, it almost seems like Microsoft may ultimately, though possibly unwillingly, get the upper hand.

RSN - Red Sox Nation?

[truckaxle]

For the those clueless people, like myself, RSN does not stand for the "Royal Singapore Navy" or the Religious Science of Nashville but for "Real, Soon now" which to the initiate could alternately mean "Real Soon, Possibly Never".

I guess you need to be a science fiction fanzine fanboy or a regular reader of "Chaos Manor" to know this. Tribal Knowledge...

The Jargon File

[RAMMS EIN]

The Jargon File explains many of these terms, has some interesting notes on hacker culture, and is sometimes plain funny.