Where Are Operating Systems Headed?

An anonymous reader writes "Dr. Dobb's Michael Swaine breaks down the question of where operating systems are headed. Among his teasers: Is Vista the last version of desktop Windows? (Counterintuitively, he says no.); Did Linux miss its window on the desktop? (Maybe.) And, most interestingly, are OSes at this point no longer necessary? He calls out the Symbian smartphone OS as something to keep an eye on, and reassures us that Hollywood-style OSes are not in our short-term future. Where do you weigh in on the future of operating systems? In ten years will we all be running applications via the internet?"

Comments

Re:They are a new platform

[flosofl]

Think of a computer as a layer of platforms. Applications can target any platform unless some part of the platform stack restricts such access.

I'm sorry, this is /. You aren't allowed to explain things in a clear and concise manner. At the very least you should be using a car analogy.

Re:They are a new platform

[AmberBlackCat]

Well you see, your computer is not a series of tubes. It's more like a truck that you can dump things on. Your operating system is the driver, and the rest of your software are the people yelling at the driver to turn this way and that. Most of what you've dumped into your truck is probably against the law but you should be fine as long as you don't dump any of it into anybody else's truck.