The OS Opportunity. John Gruber repeats his argument that PC makers should create their own OSes, and points out that compatibility concerns are less important than they’ve ever been because “the Web provides us with a core set of software and APIs that work everywhere”.
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Wow, extremely shortsighted. As if all we needed was just a bunch of web-based uncanny-valley-hitting sort-of-desktop apps.
Actually I think it's a bit ahead of its time rather than shortsighted. The groundwork has been happening for 10 years now. I am getting to the point where it is hard for me to work without connectivity.
UI and UX have always been a problem, but a core of web developers are taking the craft more seriously than ever before and the hybridization of web-based and desktop-based will continue.
I can't say I buy the idea thatthere is an uncanny-valley effect in software development, to me it's just plain ole-fashioned sloppiness.
huxley - 19th November 2009 12:11 - #
I can see the point of the web-os etc etc, but at the end of the day we still use lots of USB ports, printers, sound cards, GPSs etc, and you can't manage that on the web (some of it, yes, but not all of it). Why should any manufacturer waste years developing their own OS when they can just reuse Linux?
That's what Asus did with the EEE, and it was pretty successful -- by sidestepping MS they dramatically reduced time-to-market and development costs, and made a killing. As availability and quality of linux UIs improve, we will see more of this. There are big hints GoogleOS will be such a thing: manufacturer-specific UIs on top of industry-standard linux kernels.
Look at Nokia: their choice to bet the farm on S60 backfired horribly. Despite lots of money and efforts, they simply could not manage to build a modern cross-platform OS. What's their last chance before oblivion? Linux.
Sony makes desktop software already, and quite a lot of it; does anyone like their crashy, half-baked and DRM-laden abominations? Same for Dell. Why should their built-from-scratch OS be any different?
I suspect John meant "UI" when writing "OS".
Giacomo - 19th November 2009 13:44 - #
He seems to envision the variety of the 16-bit era, but with the today's common file-formats and network protocols, modern cross-platform development technologies, and the lingua franca of webapps.
It is appealing, but he's probably underestimating the amount of work that it takes to build a modern OS. MacOS X, Linux and Windows are all built upon literally decades of continuous development. Building a closed embedded OS for specific device from scratch, as Palm has done with WebOS, isn't really in the same league.
dmc - 19th November 2009 15:34 - #
Comparing a phone's OS to a PC's OS is apples to oranges.
Why would PC makers waste time and resources to develop their own OS. Operating Systems are not a simple thing to build, if John disagrees then go on and reinvent the wheel, just make sure it's round.
Linux however is totally free but what is it lacking for the everyday user? A clean flashy usable UI. It's all about the UI since the majority of PC users are not tech savvy. Simplify that so my mother can use it and you might give Microsoft some problems.
Dylan Oudyk - 19th November 2009 20:09 - #