Is internet becoming the next OS?

7

Windows will never fade away, in my opinion. Business will never be comfortable storing all their information in the cloud. Cloud based computing is still a distant reality for home users. Web applications are not as robust as local applications--just look at Microsoft Office 2010 and their web-based services, compared to a local install of Microsoft Office 2010.

Just ask Google, even they can't make the next OS fully in the cloud, yet. The problem is not everyone has, or will have, a fast enough internet connection, soon enough to make this a reality. Some rural areas still use Dial-up! And, yes, there is Satellite connections, but their fair-use policies are so strict a cloud-based OS would be unquestionable, and still too slow.

Cloud based-storage is just now starting to catch on, but is still mainly for off-site backup. Amazon, Carbonite, Microsoft, and Google are allowing storage, but it's nothing you really use as your only copy. Normally you still have a local copy that you work with the most.

The times are changing though, and the Federal Government wants to help! The Recovery Act also provides for $7.2 billion for broadband internet access nationwide, including grants for rural broadband access, expanding computer center capacity, and sustainable broadband adoption initiatives." Source: EyeOS
I've been playing with it a little (take less than a minute to signup and try), and I already see the inherent flaws that will keep a webOS down: it's slow--almost painfully slow. It is mainly written in PHP, XML, and JavaScript.

answered Sep 01 '10 at 12:43

djmoore711
2.0k●22●34●54

edited Sep 01 '10 at 15:24

I've seen they want to do this with gaming so that all the processing is done on the server and not locally so even a low spec laptop could play the latest game. But I don't think it will get taken up because of the unfair advantage factor. You often get lag, but you need a massive connection speed to play as well. The one thing you can always guarantee on is your own hardware.

(Sep 01 '10 at 15:36) SignOff

What you're talking about would be more like screen sharing. That's why your own system's specs would not matter, since all it has to do is redisplay the rendered images. This reminds me of the old days of games where you'd click an area (predefined) and it would then move to that area, but show the movement through video--kind of like Myst. Only this one would be far more interactive, but still "pre-rendered."

(Sep 03 '10 at 22:01) djmoore711

Is onLive proving me wrong, along with nVidia doing cloud gaming? Broadband is getting ... broader(?) so why not push content and pull inputs. It's not perfect, and due to the way the Internet works, could still unsuitable for some users.

(May 31 '12 at 00:25) djmoore711

4

I read somewhere one time, possibly an article from the guy who discovered the internet... well he said something about just connections which allowed us to connect to other servers... I kinda forgot, but those servers, are computers. So when you browse to a domain, thats just redirecting you in the background to an IP address of a server, or a computer that hosts the contents of the website. So anyway, because of this connection, he said that the internet is based off of UNIX, in which I find very believable, due to the connections and such to visit websites, or visit other people's computers I should say. So theoretically, if it is in fact based off of UNIX, then it is an operating system. Don't take my word for this as it's just an article a read quite a long while back. If somebody could pull up something similar, I would be very glad and appreciative to read it.

answered Sep 01 '10 at 13:07

AppleHack23
(suspended)

1

Dripping with sarcasm.

He was talking about it in a different sense. When you load a page you are not loading an OS onto your computer. UNIX is just the OS that delivers the packets to you. It's like sending a file on a network between two computers, just on a much larger scale. You don't transfer the whole OS on a file transfer...

(Sep 01 '10 at 15:09) djmoore711

I never said anything about downloading an OS by visiting a website. Read it again.

(Sep 01 '10 at 23:52) AppleHack23

Unix is an OS. A very fast, secure server-based OS--nothing you'd want to use as an end user. Linux and OS X have a Unix base, but a nice GUI over top of that and a lot of tweaks. What I stated still holds true, even though the servers run UNIX you are not downloading their OS to your computer just to view a page. All these servers do is what you could roughly equate to as a file transfer. I'm on a Mac and you're on a Windows PC, and I send you a file, we will only share the file, not bits of our OS's with it.

Now, those UNIX servers could host virtual machines, like running Windows XP in Parallels on a Mac. This takes a lot of horsepower, and not something you could do on a mass scale to cover every user in the world today. Our current system would not allow for this. Quite another reason local OS's will not disappear anytime soon. Windows is no longer a small, home-brewed user base that could make a change like that.

You can read more about it here: Virtual machines per sever...

Yeah, Chris really does need to talk about this! I'm sure he has far more insight than I do about it.

(Sep 03 '10 at 22:25) djmoore711

0

great question. this is a good one for chris to bring up. I personally believe it is just going to be applications over the cloud like we can see already such as Microsoft office already on the cloud in beta. BUT, they once said computers for ordinary ppl was a joke, and 640k out to be enough for everyone, so what do I know? it may happen. maybe, maybe not. Im not too sure. problem with that would be what would u do if u had no internet connectivity? :PP

answered Sep 01 '10 at 23:23

James58321
(suspended)

That is the exact problem. As I've stated before, for this idea to work, you wouldn't really need a lot of bandwidth because you would only be downloading a stream of your virtual machine desktop, and sending up your input controls, whether those be touch, mouse, or keyboard strokes, or something new entirely. What you would need is a very low, I'm talking below 50 microseconds, ping rate to make this a reality. Most connections are higher than this. 3G would fill in the "always connected" problem, but the ping is often too high to do this, so it's still not viable!

(Sep 03 '10 at 22:13) djmoore711

0

Operating systems will never be fully on the Cloud, because people like me who edit video need the power that I can get, and if all of my data is on the cloud, that means that a netbook can run the operating system. That is pretty sad considering the "future" isn't advancing technology at all.

answered Sep 02 '10 at 00:22

catchatyou
20.7k●89●166●383

There are already services that can edit video in the cloud after you upload them. Once again, they are far from robust enough to make the next Transformers, but good enough for people that don't have the software, or capable computer; like say, a Netbook.

(Sep 03 '10 at 22:03) djmoore711

fact is the more that moves to the cloud the more powerful your machine becomes when you dont have to be executing programs that free up memory and processor time ..

if the windows desktop not OS was ran from the cloud no matter how bloated it wouldnt tax your system to use it as it would be running from the cloud ..

the big problem you start to run into just continuing they way they are going adding cores and ram starts to not make noticeable changes other inovation other areas must be made :)

what good will it do if you have a 64 or 128 core 64bit processor with 10 tons of memory there is only so much time on the clock what are you trying to do time travel ??? have the process completed 10 year before you are born some 20 or 30 years before the technology exsited to do it ??

thing is it only as fast as its going to be the data can only be carry transmitted so fast packets can only be so large with the infrastructure that exists ..

what the heck is the average person gonna do if it keeps heading the way it is with microsoft and you need 1 or 3 TB just for the windows OS to install hahah

(Jun 04 '12 at 00:18) jadtechnic

0

Okay.. so what OS do you use then to connect to the Internet? There has ALWAYS got to be a local operating system, even if all it does is connect to another network.

And there will always be an open-source OS capable of saving content locally from a proprietary cloud service.

answered Sep 02 '10 at 01:32

AlanStryder
2.0k●8●20●42

edited Sep 02 '10 at 01:35

Why have something local if everything is already in the cloud. That would just take time to download and upload. Leave it all there and let the high speed servers deal with the traffic of where you want it to go. All you'd need is a very dumb box to connect to the OS's server with. It would still be a computer, but it could be very slow and dumb, which also equals cheaper. This would change the entire world. Hardware and software would only need to be oriented to work on servers and provide virtual machines that a "dumb" client could then connect to and pull images.

(Sep 03 '10 at 22:07) djmoore711

0

Similar to how Google was floating the idea of Cloud-Based OS.

The computer you own would simply have capacity to run/store the OS - with all your personal data/settings kept on the cloud.

If your computer-hardware fails then u throw it out and buy a new system, log in to your profile and your back where you left things.

There has also been talk about cloud based video games, where the cloud system will hold the game-data and pre-render the video etc then send the video data to the user... However i can't see how feasible this is in the short term, we would probably need a while before latency gets quick enough for this idea to work.

answered Sep 03 '10 at 22:30

Uelogy
2.4k●3●13●42

0

One or two of you mention the fact that businesses will never be comfortable storing data in the cloud. Well at first no business beside the IT industry wanted to use a computer to store all their data, so imo businesses will eventaully start to store things in the cloud. Its so much safer than having local server rooms, which if there was a fire would probably deem the data unrecoverable. In the cloud, this data would be just as safe.

As for the OS in the cloud, it will probably happen, however it won't happen until we have a connection ANYWHERE (And I mean ANYWHERE) we go, a constant wifi signal the world over that can handle the sheer amount of data it would require... '

answered Sep 04 '10 at 02:31

Lee Wood
2.4k●28●39●69

ahahah imagine the data pumping though a standard coffee shop if all OS data was on the cloud.

It would make OS updates much more seamless etc

(Sep 04 '10 at 02:37) Uelogy

Yes, but this will likely be possible in the future... I don't think it will happen for another 10 years at least, but its always possible :)

(Sep 04 '10 at 08:55) Lee Wood

0

Not OS "in" the Cloud, but the Cloud as the OS. I think, in the future, everything is going to be on the Web (Radio, TV, games, apps,...) everything installed and running on the web, you will no longer need Windows, Linux, OS X,... to run games, apps,... just a computer and connection to the Web.

Sorry for any bad english! :)

answered Sep 04 '10 at 04:38

Emrendil
16●2●2●4

And I bet Apple will be the first company to do this...

(Sep 04 '10 at 08:56) Lee Wood

or Google - i wonder who will be first.

(Sep 04 '10 at 09:03) Uelogy

Yes, interesting question :)

(Sep 05 '10 at 10:19) Emrendil

Google has GOOGLE CHROME OS!! so BAM! google

(Apr 23 '11 at 20:25) bailey0799

0	But still, the question is, is this a good or the bed thing? I still prefer having apps and games installed on my own computer. answered Sep 05 '10 at 10:23 Emrendil 16●2●2●4

0

Personally I don't think it's going to happen. We all have our preference in operating systems that we like to use on the computer. So forcing someone to have a thin client just to access the internet and save to the cloud. You might as well go back to the dumb terminal where it is all text based like on a Vax VMS or on super computers using a wyse 60 terminal. What if I want all my documentation at home and that is including pictures and video and any music that I like to have. Some people have been trying to do that since 2002.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_operating_system

Personally I don't even bother with the cloud. Since I have no personal use for it. Other may have a use and like the idea while others may not.

answered May 31 '12 at 21:31

Compucore
2.4k●11●19●25

its not about preferences in operating systems it is of the desktops and I think in short they are already moving to the cloud ...

everyone has been slowly prepared for the move for a while since the early days of cell services and sms services and now to android and aps ..

look at todays web browser they are not lynx or netscape navigator today if you are a chrome user you can use chrome on any computers just login to your google account and all your aps plugins documents BLogs notes pictures are even your email ..

even if you are a windows user the days of outlook express are gone your using microsoft live mail no matter what computer your on any where go to live mail program type in any email address you get mail from useing live and everything you have never deleted including unemptied trash is down loaded from the cloud to the computer you are at you loose nothing moving from place to place even if your Hard drive quits explodes is no more ..

its all ben waiting for the day where speed and capacity were ready for this moment at this point unless things start moving from the hard drive to the cloud there isnt a whole lot more growth that can be offered in the future without becomeing minturized and embeded the technology cant get no smaller and it has already really moved into the chip embeding micro stage ..

anyone who thinks business wont stand for it or isnt ready for trust the cloud isnt that where most business has been heading in the last 6 or so years they no longer pay to licence every single copy of the OS for every computer PC in the office have no HDD they boot from a service company's pay a seat licence for X amount of machines to be in use in ther local system world wide per hour they make bids monthly or bi yearly as to how many computer will be needed and ajust accordingly ..

the company I was resently working for was pahying for 450 machines hourly the key to saving is keeping mindful to log out of the systenm when not in use ..

(Jun 03 '12 at 21:14) jadtechnic

there is a whole like commodities market out there where companies bid on the cost for bulk licencing by the hour this also would include dedicated servers data bases email web and internet and intranet

computer manufacturers phone companies cable companies as well microsoft linux all working together lots of busineses are international we use to use video calls like water for tie in meetings some times conected all day long in one way or another from one end of the country and globe to the other ..

manufacturing most companies from the big ones like ford to plastic companies depend on computers for global comunication not just email but video calls as well all there quality control weight measures and such all there production lines feeding information to the system central data bases and local about machine times up time down time compleete production hourly as well as shift by shift the reason for down time scrap waste ...

(Jun 03 '12 at 21:26) jadtechnic

business and manufacturing I am most familiar with is very complex today in many markets you companies dont just charter a company to produce there product they will charter employees by name because of back ground and reputation and they want to be in the system as well to know when that person is on vacation when they are and there team are in production who is making adjustments to the machine(S) with there goods when who the inspectors QA was who the lab tech and engineer on duty at any given time of day ..

they want to be able to se the numbers being fed into the system to be sure they are getting what they are paying for :) all of this is donwe by computer through cloud services and has been for some time now none of it is new and no all of it is not through windows suprising infact little is most is linux based ..

everyone who holds on to XP and thinks it is sucha great operating system has to also look at where things have gone since then and know it is what killed microsoft everyone faught so hard to hold on to technology that was around many years longer then it should have been to start with vista and win7 were to little to late and even window 8 is several decades behind in many ways with technologies going on out there :)

the only thing it has going for it is that most hardware companies still toss there stuff at them and port pertty well for windows but there is even a big shift happening there now too as there is a lot of big backer in the linux market ..

(Jun 03 '12 at 21:54) jadtechnic

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