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What will come after Linux?
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Comments (29)
9 earlier comments in the full thread.
In my opinion, Linux will complete the UNIX cycle. I don't think another UNIX style system will emerge.
Linux is not the "end all be all" of Operating Systems, because new OSs will be invented as people have different tastes and hardware.
What I don't see is the "re-invent the wheel" attitude gaining enough foot-hold to want to make another OS that merely re-invents UNIX, so long as Linux remains as open to new hardware, new processes and new developers as it is.
I was giving my wife a quick history lesson over the weekend, telling her how different hardware had different OSs made especially for them.
But that was when things were all proprietary.
UNIX is something I could not have imagined without having used it, or read about it, etc. It's like imagining "red" without having seen it.
With the open development model, new hardware doesn't mean writing an entire OS from scratch. The separation inside the Linux code so that hardware specific elements can be swapped out easily means comparatively little work needed in order to run on new hardware.
People will take the easy way out, generally speaking.
So there it is. If people want something like UNIX going forward, they will use Linux.
What will come after Linux is going to be so different I can't know what it will be until it has already happened.
The reason that Win95 was not WOW to me was because I had already used Win1,2,3, MacOS 6 and 7 and SunOS with Xwindows, so a GUI was not so amazing. But it was more "seamless" than I had seen before, that's what made it interesting.
Linux is not the "end all be all" of Operating Systems, because new OSs will be invented as people have different tastes and hardware.
What I don't see is the "re-invent the wheel" attitude gaining enough foot-hold to want to make another OS that merely re-invents UNIX, so long as Linux remains as open to new hardware, new processes and new developers as it is.
I was giving my wife a quick history lesson over the weekend, telling her how different hardware had different OSs made especially for them.
But that was when things were all proprietary.
UNIX is something I could not have imagined without having used it, or read about it, etc. It's like imagining "red" without having seen it.
With the open development model, new hardware doesn't mean writing an entire OS from scratch. The separation inside the Linux code so that hardware specific elements can be swapped out easily means comparatively little work needed in order to run on new hardware.
People will take the easy way out, generally speaking.
So there it is. If people want something like UNIX going forward, they will use Linux.
What will come after Linux is going to be so different I can't know what it will be until it has already happened.
The reason that Win95 was not WOW to me was because I had already used Win1,2,3, MacOS 6 and 7 and SunOS with Xwindows, so a GUI was not so amazing. But it was more "seamless" than I had seen before, that's what made it interesting.
> It used to be "Wow!" for Windows too. Think Win 95, Win 98, Win XP. Then Vista came out and it was more like, > "!@#$%!! What a miserable POS!!!"
I assume that the emotional scars from Millenium Edition are still severe enough that we don't talk about it?
I assume that the emotional scars from Millenium Edition are still severe enough that we don't talk about it?
> I assume that the emotional scars from Millenium Edition are still severe enough that we don't talk about it?
Microsoft still had credibility at that time. Vista was the release where the ordinary user scratched her head and said that a competent software company wouldn't do things like that.
BTW, I never used Millenium Edition, and didn't know very many people who did.
Microsoft still had credibility at that time. Vista was the release where the ordinary user scratched her head and said that a competent software company wouldn't do things like that.
BTW, I never used Millenium Edition, and didn't know very many people who did.
Quoting:Linux is not the "end all be all" of Operating SystemsHERETIC!
Quoting:Linux is not the "end all be all" of Operating Systems
...yet.
:P
> HERETIC!
When the singularity occurs, and the OS writes itself, then maybe heretic will take on an whole new meaning.
When the singularity occurs, and the OS writes itself, then maybe heretic will take on an whole new meaning.
B._R.,
Ever the optimist, Bob. Just wondering how many times this entity will be hitting the delete key(s), button(s), widget(s) or other functional equivalent(s). Wondering if anyone is working on a defense. Beside sledge hammers.
YBT
Ever the optimist, Bob. Just wondering how many times this entity will be hitting the delete key(s), button(s), widget(s) or other functional equivalent(s). Wondering if anyone is working on a defense. Beside sledge hammers.
YBT
Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool my twice, shame on me.
Fool me three, four or five times, I must be a Windows user.
Fool my twice, shame on me.
Fool me three, four or five times, I must be a Windows user.
I wonder if Microsoft will ever dump the current Windows codebase and go to something like the Midori OS they're working on. If they get rid of the "legacy" code and go to something completely different, with "legacy" apps in a VM, that could change the game in MS's favor going forward.
Will Linux start moving in the direction that Thompson and Ritchie took Unix, i.e. down the path that led them to Plan 9? Plan 9's original functional multi-processing isn't really worth it these days, but the whole passing-file-descriptors, and concocting your own namespaces ideas have a lot of merit.
Microsoft will never dump the current Windows code base, even though it's clearly decrepit and decroded. No commercial entity can do that sort of thing. Look at Sun, holding on to Solaris until the end, Apple holding on to OS9 until Jobs came back and forced them onto Mach/Next OS, and DEC hanging on to VMS. Heck, they even wrote a Macro-32 compiler for the Alpha CPU: http://www.linux-mips.org/pub/linux/mips/people/macro/DEC/DT...
Microsoft will never dump the current Windows code base, even though it's clearly decrepit and decroded. No commercial entity can do that sort of thing. Look at Sun, holding on to Solaris until the end, Apple holding on to OS9 until Jobs came back and forced them onto Mach/Next OS, and DEC hanging on to VMS. Heck, they even wrote a Macro-32 compiler for the Alpha CPU: http://www.linux-mips.org/pub/linux/mips/people/macro/DEC/DT...
I assume that the emotional scars from Millenium Edition are still severe enough that we don't talk about it?
I still can't feel my feet.
I still can't feel my feet.
> No commercial entity can do that sort of thing.
I suggest that they could, but won't, because they have been selling product on the "backwards compatible" meme.
They know they would have to support two parallel systems for an unknown time, and that more than doubles their costs.
Personally, I think Microsoft could write a "WINE that works", sell it for $25 or $40 per license, and make just as much money or more than they do now and never have to worry about legacy code base again.
> Will Linux start moving in the direction that Thompson and Ritchie took Unix, i.e. down the path that led them to Plan 9?
Fork you! (ahem) I mean, go for it! Would it require a kernel module to do this, or a new shell?
I suggest that they could, but won't, because they have been selling product on the "backwards compatible" meme.
They know they would have to support two parallel systems for an unknown time, and that more than doubles their costs.
Personally, I think Microsoft could write a "WINE that works", sell it for $25 or $40 per license, and make just as much money or more than they do now and never have to worry about legacy code base again.
> Will Linux start moving in the direction that Thompson and Ritchie took Unix, i.e. down the path that led them to Plan 9?
Fork you! (ahem) I mean, go for it! Would it require a kernel module to do this, or a new shell?
Bob,
YBT
Quoting:Fork [Y]ou!Your Alma mater? Odd I thought I knew of most of the big tech schools. What state?
YBT
> What state?
Confusion, mostly.
It's an affiliate of the School of Hard Knocks.
But really, if the Plan 9 developments are a Good Thing(tm), then put them in!
Confusion, mostly.
It's an affiliate of the School of Hard Knocks.
But really, if the Plan 9 developments are a Good Thing(tm), then put them in!
helios,
Quoting:I still can't feel my feet.But that was the case long before WinME, n'est-ce pas?
Quoting:I still can't feel my feet.
I recommend 50 sit-ups a day.
Quoting:I recommend 50 sit-ups a day.That will help you see your feet, not feel them.
> That will help you see your feet, not feel them.
Stretching will help, then you can feel them with your fingers.
Stretching will help, then you can feel them with your fingers.
Quoting:> What state?We're neighbors, we should get together sometime soon.
Confusion, mostly.
Quoting:It's an affiliate of the School of Hard Knocks.Been there too, still licking my wounds.
Forget Plan 9, it will never fly or get approved by the FAA.
YBT
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It used to be "Wow!" for Windows too. Think Win 95, Win 98, Win XP. Then Vista came out and it was more like, "!@#$%!! What a miserable POS!!!"