What does the future hold?

[Troy Martin]

And you know this how exactly? You've visited the future?

[yemista]

If anything, Im pretty sure Windows will never dissappear. It will just be changing. Microsoft is a good company and alot of companies depend on them. Linux wont die either, it might just be replaced with something very similar to it, but it has such a strong community already and there will always be people with a more in depth knowledge of computers that will perfer it over windows. The most important thing to windows is that its easy, and it does everything you want. Thats the key to having your operating system take off. It has to be real easy to use, support everything, and do everything for you. If may be true that an OS that just runs a browser will be faster than a "bloated" system, but hardware keeps getting stronger and stronger, and you really dont have to wait that long. Also, if you just want to have a browser, you need a whole lot of other things to make it useful. And you will need to able to write to the harddrive, if anything just so people are able to store favorites. Why use a browser that loads 2 seconds faster, but does not store your past search history or allow you to bookmark sites?

[Troy Martin]

Take a look at Splashtop/ExpressGate. It's Linux 2.6-based and has a web browser built in. It also boots in about five seconds (trust me, it does.)

[NickJohnson]

I think the point is that we can never properly predict the future - especially of computing. That's why it would never work if everyone here piled on to one project. Everyone thinks there is a different future, and wants their part of it, so they all have different designs. What else is the purpose of OS development if not to upset the status quo and make better use of the future? The only reasonable solution is to not follow a set pattern; only to make the most simple and modular design - one that is least self imposing on later developments. Do not waste time on what we cannot agree upon. Instead, focus on what we can be sure of: an impervious foundation, the essence of an operating system.

At least that's my philosophy. And that's why I write my OS.

[Benk]

Web 2.0 != simplicity ...Its easy for the OS but its terrible for the developer your talking about a 10 fold productivity loss , nasty bugs etc. Very few web 2.0 apps work well and cleanly im sick of these pages doing strange things. You are coding distribute applications in 3 + different languages with an archaic communication protocol. Im certain these effort will collapse under their own weight though RIA will prob replace them.

I don't buy in most cases that minimalism is what makes it successful it works for Google but their newer stuff like Addwords is moving towards thick client/RIA. You get bloat over time with any system compare Linux to 5 years ago It works for Apple but thats not due to the product but marketing Easy to no name mp3 players were around before Apple - Apple is just good at marketing and selling a brand taking double for the same product.