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Ask Slashdot: If You Could Assemble a "FrankenOS" What Parts Would You Use?
rnws writes: While commenting about log-structured file systems in relation to flash SSDs, I referenced Digital's Spiralog [pdf], released for OpenVMS in 1996. This got me thinking about how VMS to this day has some of, if not the best storage clustering (still) in use today. Many operating systems have come and gone over the years, particularly from the minicomputer era, and each usually had something unique it did really well. If you could stitch together your ideal OS, then which "body parts" would you use from today and reanimate from the past? I'd probably start with VMS's storage system, MPE's print handling, OS/2's Workplace Shell, AS/400's hardware abstraction and GNU's Bash shell. What would you choose?
FreeBSD kernel, Solaris networking/clustering capabilities, and a sort-of Windows UI (Imagine Windows 7, not the metro interface)
BSD style kernel .NET or Java
MacOS X multithreading
Solaris networking and filesystems
MacOS 9 system layout and management (auto install/remove via drag and drop)
Windows 7 start menu
System level support for IL - such as
Control strip from MacOS9
BeOS multimedia engine
Linux device drivers
AppleScript/REXX application scripting
OpenBSD code auditing standards, firewall
OpenVMS system partitioning, file versioning and backup
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
Your mouth to Microsoft and Apple's ears. I want an OS that does nothing but run my programs and stay out of my way. I can get my own browser thanks.
If y'all could just get Linux to run current AAA games, and some professional music & audio software, I'd never spend another nickel with Microsoft or Apple.
You are welcome on my lawn.
You find life unbearable on a Zenbook running Windows 8.1, and you say Ubuntu Jr makes things easier? Unlikely.
What obviously happened is that you got your panties in a bunch when you saw that metro screen and weird start button, and you couldn't be bothered to spend 5 minutes to read or watch a Windows 8.1 tutorial to learn about all the nice features. Instead you blamed Microsoft and went back to your zone of comfort.
It's ok to prefer Linux; I use Fedora on my desktop. But you didn't even give a chance to Windows, so don't come bitching about that O/S and be a drama queen on top of it. Millions of people use Windows on a daily basis on hardware that is a lot worse than your Zenbook and they don't jump from the balcony 20 minutes after powering up their machine for the first time. It's people like you that make Linux users look like petulant idiots.
lucm, indeed.
Hi,
The problem is - and my 67 year-old mother, about 10 million businesses, and the nice person you replied to agree - is Windows 8.0/8.1 is an immense paradigm shift, but in a direction which is frankly counter-productive.
It was set up to facilitate touch-screens, Surface Windows PCs, and so on.
Essentially: business (and my 67 year-old mother for that matter) don't want swish new Metro screens, a start menu that makes it actually difficult to locate your MS Office apps, and so on. They want all the improvements, but more importantly: they want to walk in Monday morning after the "upgrade" and to actually be able to work out what the hell they are doing, how to print something, where Notepad has gone, and so on.
They don't WANT to have to spend days and days screwing around trying to find the "right" icons on their Metro screen, and getting rid of the weather, CNN news, travel crap and so on.
They want to just get on with working.
My mother (and I suspect lots of businesses) took her new PC with Windows 8.1 and gave it away to carry on using her old (5 year old) Win XP machine... because all the bells and whistles, plus the fact she just could not find her s*&t meant it took her PC from being a simple "My browser is here... My Euchre program is here" exercise to becoming a "Why in the name of all that's holy do I give a CRAP about Expedia, or CNN, or the weather. I'm next to the window for God's sake!
WHERE'S MY FIREFOX, AND MY BIRTHDAY CARD PRINTING PROGRAM??!!!" exercise.
As a user of Mint/Ubuntustudio, running XFCE I get this completely... especially when I see Ubuntu's current desktop, and think: "WHY do I need to type the name of a program to run it? I WANT MY DESKTOP ICONS BACK!"
It's nice that you can replace the default Start menu, but in Linux if I don't like the defaults of KDE or Gnome, getting them how I want won't require a third party download.