Thursday, August 05, 2010

Hello Web Browser - Good Bye Operating System

It's been over a decade now since we've seen web browsers and for the most part, they have gotten faster, more secure and even offer user-interfacing that sometimes makes us wish our Operating Systems did the same. With the advent of NetBooks and other mobile devices, users are now getting geared to being on the move, keeping in touch with friends and relatives with messaging, taking pics, creating videos and even doing other complex web-oriented tasks through either their snazzy phones or their browsers. I have even stopped watching movies on my home PC and have simply switched to my Playstation 3 to get the most out of my movie experience. I would even go so far to say that if you are an end-user with absolutely no need to develop any software or perform tasks related to file editing, etc. your primal needs as a PC user are all met by your neighbourhood-friendly web browser. With the utilization of Cloud Computing and SaaS now entering everyone's lives in a small way through the internet, is this really the slow but timely demise of a full-blown operating system? I of course, cannot partake in the testing because I need to develop portals for a living and sadly, this is just not possible with just a web-browser but I did think of a few things that might make sense in the years to come.

  1. Web-based email. Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. are all prime examples of having your email access no matter where you go. They are OS independent and even work on your phone.
  2. Picture Storage/Editing Functionality. There are services available on the web that take care of more than just providing albums of your trip to your grandmother's house or even the basic editing and publishing. Furthermore, some sites even offer you the ability to send your pictures to a print lab for actual physical copies.
  3. File Storage. With options like Microsoft's Skydrive, users only pay for storage space and simply access their data anywhere. DLNA even allows devices to share data among them so why ever bother lugging around an expensive portable hard-drive?
  4. Web-Site Editing/Creation. If you've got a need to make a website and you need it to have basic information, most hosting sites now provide you with easy to edit templates and even blogs have inherited this feature as part of their service plans. The only downside is that there is no real testing functionality and if you need such services you are demoted back to your OS to meet these requirements.
  5. Media Players. Enter the era that has been captured by YouTube. What can you really not find on Google? Tack this onto a store functionality for music and you'll never have to store your music on your hard drive anymore.
  6. Television. Even the guys who started Hulu must be looking back at their days of infancy and going. We never thought it would be this big!
  7. Office Productivity. If your not strapped for complexities, Google Docs does this pretty well.
I could list more, but what's the point unless you sell the general population on the idea that the Operating System is really no longer a solid requirement if not to only power your web-browser up and get you on the internet. With options like Chromium OS, Linux Netbook Remix and some other black-market Linux based solutions now making their way into the mainstream market, more end-users are slowly getting educated on the ease of installation and use of these OSes. The PC market is certainly not dying anytime soon but if your an end-user with no real need to play on your OS, I'd say give a Netbook a try. Chances are you'll never go back to your regular bulky Operating System ever again.

No comments: