The Future Might Be BIOS and Browsers

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The Future Might Be BIOS and Browsers

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday May 21, 2009 @05:11AM from the heard-this-before dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Few in the open source community have welcomed online applications like Google Docs with open arms, but Keir Thomas claims he's found a way forward — and it's one that involves exclusively open source. He reckons BIOS-based operating systems are the future, because they will alter the way users think about their computers. FTA: 'The key breakthrough is ideological: BIOS-based operating systems demote the operating system to just another function of the hardware. It breaks the old mindset of the operating system being a distinct platform, or an end in itself. The operating system becomes part of the overall computing appliance. This allows the spotlight to focus on online applications.'"

11 of 350 comments (clear)

Not the dumb terminal scenario again? by thewils · 2009-05-21 05:15 · Score: 2, Funny

I knew I'd kept my old 3270 hanging around for a reason!

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store it on the HDD! by ZyBex · 2009-05-21 05:15 · Score: 5, Funny

Why not just store the BIOS on the hard disk? That way it has plenty of space to grow and can be updated easily!
Oh wait...
1. Re:store it on the HDD! by VampireByte · 2009-05-21 05:46 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  If the latest industry magazines are correct, the BIOS is going to be stored in the cloud.
  
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  Run and catch, run and catch, the lamb is caught in the blackberry patch.
2. Re:store it on the HDD! by alta · 2009-05-21 06:21 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Wow, that's a great IDEA. Then all we need is some sort of Basic Input/Output system to load up the bios for us!
  Why didn't someone think of that before???
  
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  Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
so we're saying my future by nimbius · 2009-05-21 05:23 · Score: 4, Funny

is in chip-design or network communications...great...thanks alot for this dead-end career GNU/LINUX!!

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Good people go to bed earlier.
Re:This is true for some value of by Anonymous Coward · 2009-05-21 05:44 · Score: 5, Funny

But Firefox still works.
There's no place like 127.0.0.1!
Re:This is true for some value of by camperdave · 2009-05-21 05:54 · Score: 2, Funny

But how will he send the source to compilerfarm.org?

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"Our browser apps are really low quality... by LordHaart · 2009-05-21 05:59 · Score: 2, Funny

...so lets destroy the OS so that they look good by comparison!" -Paraphrased from the article.
Re:This is true for some value of by MBGMorden · 2009-05-21 06:03 · Score: 2, Funny

You sir win the 2009 Whooshy Award.
No duh that all those programs take a local app. They were responding directly to a post that was claiming that the systems described in the article were viable because local apps were no longer needed, and the post your responded to was giving examples of apps that still are useful but can run locally.

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"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
Re:This is true for some value of by icannotthinkofaname · 2009-05-21 07:34 · Score: 2, Funny

I'm using Firefox right now. I just tried putting 127.0.0.1 into the location bar. I got the "Failed to Connect" error.
"Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at 127.0.0.1." :(

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Re:This is true for some value of by KudyardRipling · 2009-05-21 12:13 · Score: 2, Funny

Wonderful, Next thing is when I power up my next Alienware system, I am going to hear a jingle (DLEELEELEET!) and see something like this:
*** ALIENWARE BASIC 4.0 ***
20480000000 BYTES FREE
READY.
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