Slashdot Mirror


The Incredible Shrinking Operating System

snydeq writes "The center of gravity is shifting away from the traditional, massive operating systems of the past, as even the major OSes are slimming their footprint to make code bases easier to manage and secure, and to increase the variety of devices on which they can run, InfoWorld reports. Microsoft, for one, is cutting down the number of services that run at boot to ensure Windows 7 will run across a spectrum of hardware. Linux distros such as Ubuntu are stripping out functionality, including MySQL, CUPS, and LDAP, to cut footprints in half. And Apple appears headed for a slimmed-down OS X that will enable future iPhones or tablet devices to run the same OS as the Mac. Though these developments don't necessarily mean that the browser will supplant the OS, they do show that OS vendors realize they must adapt as virtualization, cloud computing, netbooks, and power concerns drive business users toward smaller, less costly, more efficient operating environments."

14 of 345 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds Familiar. by lobiusmoop · · Score: 3, Funny

    Thin Clients
    Mozilla Firefox

    There's an apocryphal story that someone suggested a branch of Firefox that was leaned down by concentrating on the core browser functionality... what goes around...

    --
    "I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
  2. Re:MS is working on a new OS architecture by wisty · · Score: 2, Funny

    I see your Midori, and raise you HURD.

  3. Economy by macaulay805 · · Score: 3, Funny

    It looks like OSes couldn't escape the economic downturn as well.

  4. Re:MySQL & LDAP? by 0racle · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ya, no one ever needs to use the Active Directory or Windows Internal Database/MSDE. Everyone only every runs a small gaming machine, why does Windows support these things in the first place?

    --
    "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
  5. Re:No, they're not. by Dunkirk · · Score: 3, Funny

    Anybody advanced enough to know what MySQL is (much less how to administrate/operate it) would know how to apt-get install it if they needed it, anyway.

    And anybody advanced enough to know how to actually write an application against it would know how to emerge it.

    Thanks, folks. I'll be here all week. Try the veal.

    --
    Acts 17:28, "For in Him we live, and move, and have our being."
  6. Re:No, they're not. by kdemetter · · Score: 2, Funny

    And anybody advanced enough to know how to actually write an application against it would know how to emerge it.

    And wait 2 hours for it to compile :-).

  7. Re:MS is working on a new OS architecture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    It was a pet project of one of their top engineers.

    That's back when they called it Java, wasn't it?

  8. What I read by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Windows 7 will run [on] a spectrum

    Great! They must have really stripped down the OS.

  9. So does this mean.. by kheldan · · Score: 2, Funny

    ..that I should pull my CP/M disks (8" DSDD floppies) and IMSAI 8080 out of storage again?

    --
    Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
  10. Re:CUPS by godrik · · Score: 3, Funny

    Using your trick, I found that the most time consumming application was:

    root 7275 6982 0 Jan23 tty7 01:46:49 /usr/bin/Xorg :0 -br -audit 0 -auth /var/gdm/:0.Xauth -nolisten tcp vt7

    I do not an X movie organizer, I should get rid of it.

  11. Re:promising..but... by Cormacus · · Score: 3, Funny

    >> "Sounds promising, until you go to open Notepad and you find out you need to install it"

    user@box> vim
    -bash: vim: command not found
    user@box> sudo apt-get install vim
        .
        .
        .
        .
    Done.
    user@box> vim

    Seems to work ok to me!

    --
    Mon chien, il n'a pas du nez. Comment scent-il? TrÃs mauvais!
  12. microsoft shrinking? Yeah Sure! by michalk0 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Windows Server 2008, Recommended disksize: 40GB

    bundled with Full-HD p0rn perhaps?

  13. "Grow smaller" . . . by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 3, Funny

    I was actually on a conference call concerning an Open Source thingie, when someone stated that, "We're planning in the future to 'grow smaller'"

    I don't think he even believed it himself. But the sheer audacity to let those words over his lips truly amazed me.

    Nuthin' ever gets 'no smaller, except your pay check, after taxes, and you take inflation into account.

    Well, maybe your retirement fund . . . and the value of your house . . .

    The gas tank of my car seems to be getting bigger . . . it used to hold only 50 euros of diesel, now it can hold about 75 euros! Wow, that's innovation, a growing gas tank!

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  14. Re:No, not presumptuous at all.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    You forgot the one kind of database you are most likely to encounter in the typical office setting:

    a big, humungous Excel file using at least 7 fonts and a couple of colors.

    Awesome.