The State of the Internet Operating System

macslocum writes "Tim O'Reilly: 'I've been talking for years about "the internet operating system," but I realized I've never written an extended post to define what I think it is, where it is going, and the choices we face. This is that missing post. Here you will see the underlying beliefs about the future that are guiding my publishing program as well as the rationale behind conferences I organize.'"

Comments

Re:Dumb terminals and smart people don't mix

[Em Emalb]

Actually, it's all just one big cycle. When I first broke into the IT world, PCs were a bit of a novelty in most businesses. Then, the PC explosion caused things to move towards a "client-side" setup, with faster desktops, laptops and not as much horse power required on the server side. Then, in an effort to save money, tied in with servers/CPUs/memory becoming cheaper, and security concerns, companies started (or have started) to slowly pull things back from the client side and put more emphasis on the server side of things.

That said, I'm sure it won't be long before we go full-circle again.

One final thought, I do not want any "OS" that's supposed to run on my computer to be running on the internet. Corporate networks, in my experience, are typically much more prone to solid uptimes, unlike the internet. Plus, if something goes down on my network, I don't have to depend on someone else to fix it.

P or NP

[daveime]

It seems the hardest and most time-consuming problem with Internet operating systems is figuring out how to work offline.

And the easiest solution, which seems to escape almost everybody, is "don't work online in the first place".

Re:Dumb terminals and smart people don't mix

[drinkypoo]

It's also dumb. Even if you bought a low-end Intel Atom machine, why would you want to waste that CPU letting it be a dumb terminal? Put that CPU to work by enabling it to do tasks independently even if the network connection fails.

I weep for OpenMOSIX. I was hoping that the project would continue and ere long we'd be motivated to buy all one architecture in our house simply because all the machines would form a cluster almost without our involvement and just accelerate each others' tasks. A terminal cluster where the terminals also make the entire system faster is kind of an ideal dream.