Ask Slashdot: Could Android and iOS Become Popular Desktop Operating Systems?

dryriver writes: For many older people, you use Windows, macOS, or Linux on the desktop, and Android or iOS on mobile devices. Nobody is screaming for an Android desktop PC or an iOS 17.3-inch laptop computer. But what about younger generations growing up, from a very young age, glued to devices with these two mobile operating systems running on it? Will they want to use Windows, macOS, or Linux just like us old farts when they grow older, or will they want their favorite mobile operating systems running -- in a beefed up and more robust form -- on desktop and laptop computers which they use for school, college, and/or work as well? Since we are on this topic -- could Android or iOS one day become reasonably usable desktop operating systems from an architectural standpoint? And could Google and Apple already be planning for an "Android and iOS on the desktop" computing future, without telling anyone about it publicly?

Comments

Start to plan on it when ...

[Tjp($)pjT]

When Apple moves Xcode to iOS you know they are planning for shifting the paradigm. Until then, desktops and mobile OSes are not destined to merge.

Fuschia

[Kryptonut]

Isn't that sort of what Google is doing with Fuchsia?

OS X / macOS seems to have gotten progressively more and more iOS like since about Yosemite (10.10).

Mobile OS doesn't have the workflow

[Heir Of The Mess]

My primary school age kids use their portable devices for games that can be played with a couple of fingers, but they know that for getting work done they use Windows OS. They have collections of photos they sort into folders, videos they edit, pictures they edit with their fine motor skills via the mouse, copying files to USB to take to school, powerpoint presentations, web pages they are copying and referencing, and this is all at the same time across multiple monitors. I guess if you really wanted an alternative there's MacOS, but then that doesn't run Visual Studio, so it's useless to me, and why would I buy a whole lot of different rigs for my home environment when the Windows OS installations I have all work nicely together? Under what situation would someone run Android as a desktop operating system? It's like Linux but with a whole lot of vulnerabilities thrown on top. Maybe iOS could make it if Apple turf MacOS and give iOS a desktop shell. If you're hoping for some mobile OS to take over the desktop then that's probably your best bet, but then you are stuck in the walled garden on your desktop.

Popularity or Utility are not Relevant

[Required Snark]

This question must be considered in terms of the current captive market.

On the desktop Microsoft is the entrenched monopoly. On smartphones there is a duopoly between Android/Google and IOS/Apple. It is completely feasible for Google or Apple to try to grab some of Microsoft's desktop market share with their respective phone centric OS. Google is already on this path with the Chromebook and Apple with the iPad line.

The move to challenge Widows with another platform is a business decision on the part of Google or Apple. It's not about an unmet demand on the part of users. It's a case of three massive rivals placing bets on the future. Concepts like "popularity" or "ease of use" are not primary movers. Marketing, market share, and risk/reward are the basic factors, not any desire on the part of the public.

You changed my mind

[SuperKendall]

Mobile devices are based on the act of consumption, not content creation.

I was coming to say the same thing about Betteridge's, but because I know your statement here is utterly false I conclude that in fact it will happen.

I have switched to mostly editing images from professional cameras on an iPad because I prefer it. I try to do all by banking on mobile apps (here failures of the app makers throw occasional wrenches in that plan). I've worked on long documents and presentations all on mobile devices.

Sure iOS and android are not replacing desktops today, this year, or next. But you can see it coming, sure as you can see the lights from the large city you are driving towards scores of miles away at night and know what is there.