Republished
Hear the word “operating system,” and the first thing that pops into mind for most of us is the Windows logo in all its multi-colored glory; peer a little harder and you might see a big shiny Apple and maybe catch a glimpse of the Linux Penguin hovering around the corner, each with their band of devotees carrying their respective banners passionately onwards.
Source: i-cio.com (linked)
The operating system (OS) development space of today though, is arguably getting a little stale. Windows 7, OS X Snow Leopard and Ubuntu 9 – the latest incarnations of the Top Three – have all seen no huge innovation in the way OS are designed and used.
They’ve been by and large maintenance and performance improvement releases; and while it’s great to see faster boot times and improved stability, they are far from being the revolution in computing we’ve been waiting for.
For many, the story ends at the operating system that comes installed with the computer we buy and “dual boot” is another name given to more than one shoe. Diving into the world of formatted hard drives, BIOS updates and driver incompatibilities in search of “the perfect OS” is certainly not a job for the faint-hearted.
But what about BeOS, or Haiku – or even the many flavors of Linux that never get the attention of the mainstream? What if these relatively obscure operating systems are better suited to the evolving trend of computer use in the home – or even the school and office? What have you left when we take out Windows, Mac OS and Ubuntu from the picture? Chaos? Pandemonium? World peace?
Here’s a look at some interesting alternative approaches and ideas to the concept of operating systems.
Free and open-source, ReactOS is a community driven clean room reverse engineered project based on the Windows NT architecture. Although still in its alpha development stage, it is compatible with most NT applications and device drivers and sports a Windows 98-like user interface. The development cycle includes an extensive audit to protect it from software patent and copyright issues. While it’s certainly not for the average user, it’s still a testament to the determination of its developers to develop an NT-like kernel and their motto of “Change your OS, not your software” no doubt resounds with those of us who’ve ever had to change and operating system only to find that none of our old software is compatible.
Good OS, more commonly known simply as gOS, is a lightweight implementation of Ubuntu Linux with a focus on webapps; in other words, gOS is basically the cloud-based operating system of today, using web apps instead of locally running programs for email, photo and document editing etc. Because of the familiarity this develops, gOS is often touted as the most easy to adjust to Linux distro in the market; it comes preloaded with Wine to allow for Windows applications and makes heavy use of Google gadgets on the desktop. However, not everyone is comfortable with relinquishing control of all computing power to the cloud, unstable as it is today. Moreover, with internet access less than ubiquitous in Pakistan, moving to the cloud may not be the best idea in the world.
Jolicloud is another Linux based OS focused on web apps, but what’s different about this mix is that it’s built specifically for netbooks, i.e. relatively low powered computers with limited hard disk space. Its UI is designed for limited screen real estate, low powered processors with the overall objective of getting the user on to their web app of choice with as little OS cruft as possible. It relies on applications like Wine, Adobe Air and Mozilla Prism to provide a window to web apps such as Gmail, Facebook, Zoho Suite etc. Jolicloud is an Internet operating system, and so the same drawbacks apply: we aren’t necessarily online 24×7 and not everyone can trust the cloud with all of their data. Still, it’s an interesting concept in the evolution of OS design, and for a secondary computer—as most netbooks usually are—Jolicloud is a great idea.
Slax is a small, portable OS (based on Linux of course, what else) with an interesting take on the installation process. Instead of coming preloaded with everything the developers thought would be nice to include, users get the ability to choose what “modules” they want to add to the installation build. That is to say I could skim a few hundred MBs (and some time) off the installation by removing office suite software from the ISO image I download. Modules are basically software packages that can either be included in the installation or even added later. For example, Firefox is a module and so is the set of WiFi device drivers.
- Honorable mention: Google Chrome OS, Microsoft Midori
Although no hard details exist for either of these projects, it is clear that mainstream operating systems are going through an evolutionary phase today. Google announced its plans for Chrome OS in July as an open-source project based on their Chrome browser and the Linux kernel with a completely new windowing system. It’s reasonable to expect Chrome OS will rely heavily—almost exclusively—on the cloud, and more specifically on Google’s own cloud. Of course, their implementation of Linux remains to be seen, and the ultimate test is for it to click with mainstream, generally non-savvy computer users. Of course, the Google brand could be enough to breed familiarity and confidence, but that too remains to be seen.
Midori is the codename for a project under development at Microsoft Research Labs and is, as some pundits believe, the “replacement” for Windows as we know it today. Midori is a managed code system, meaning it runs all code inside of a virtual machine which provides greater security, stability and software interoperability. According to reports, some of the aspects being worked on are sandboxed applications, better connectedness between different devices and, of course, cloud computing.
Innovation and evolution in areas so fundamental to computing are always fun to keep an eye on and never get boring. Whether it’s a three-man team working on Jolicloud or dozens of programmers developing Chrome OS or Midori, these ‘idea farms’ are perhaps the future of the operating system.
Keeping that in mind, its best to view these independently developed operating systems as hatching grounds for new ideas and easier experimentation. Without the risk of alienating non-savvy users, developers can experiment more freely with new UI concepts or filesystem changes, for example; and with the type of community that surrounds these sorts of enthusiast projects, they can rely on getting sound feedback from their many, often times very determined users. And whether or not something like Slax is a good idea for the masses, testing out the idea is what makes it all so interesting.
Asif