Future of Operating Systems

Multimedia - high-definition TV, Media storage, home network
Mobile - GPS, social applications
Embedded - Automobile, House, Domestic applicances
Network /cloud computing
See below.
New GUIs
See below.
Standard / open-source OS
- Pace of change in hardware slows down. All machines finally high enough spec to run just anything. Programs don't have to cut corners and do machine-specific tricks to save time.
- Standardised, open-source OS?
- Java OSes? OS and applications increasingly divorced from hardware so they will run on any machine.
- Related to Network computing

Network /cloud computing

Remote company manages the OS, files and apps.
Storage and CPU cycles outsourced to network.
Client is just a comms device and display.

Network upgrades. Applications sit on home PC but are in constant communication with factory, which handles maintenance problems.
- Windows Update
Global and mobile computing. Your desktop and files stored remotely, accessible from any terminal anywhere.
- Many people now use this model for their email - Gmail
- For your photos - Flickr
- For your movies - YouTube
- For your files - Google Docs
- I use this model myself - all my files on DCU UNIX servers, edit remotely from home
- backup services
Full Network Computing? Download / communicate with entire OS and applications from remote site at startup / when needed. Remote company takes care of all complexity, upgrades, etc.
- thin client
- remote desktop
- Web desktop
- Google Apps
- Cloud computing has really become the standard name for all this now.

Netbooks
- The Netbook Effect: How Cheap Little Laptops Hit the Big Time, Mar 2009: "I wrote this story on a netbook, and if you had peeked over my shoulder, you would have seen precisely two icons on my desktop: the Firefox browser and a trash can. Nothing else. It turns out that about 95 percent of what I do on a computer can now be accomplished through a browser. ... Come to think of it, because none of my documents reside on the netbook, I'm not sure I even need the trash can."
Remote storage:
- It may seem unnerving to keep your precious files remotely with an online company, and have no copies at all yourself. But is keeping your files with Google (or whoever) inherently less safe than keeping them in your own home where they may be lost to theft, fire or hardware crash?
- The online company is unlikely to lose your files. Just so long as it never goes bust. A simple solution to that is you could get it to post you a periodic DVD of your files.
- Again, I use this myself. I have a copy of my files at home, and also at work. I would feel very insecure if I only had a copy at home.
Google Chrome OS - lightweight OS, based on Linux, for netbooks / network computing.