The Internet is the Ultimate OS
Why betting on native over the Internet is a bad idea
Close your eyes and imagine the perfect operating system.
What would make better it than any operating system ever created? Would it be ubiquitous? Device agnostic? Always on? Developer friendly? Open? Secure? Flexible? Future-proof? Easy-to-use? All of these things and more?
If I had to guess the perfect operating system would be an OS that could be anything you want it to be, just not all at the same time. The bad news is that there will never be a Perfect OS. There is however something that comes close, something that is the Ultimate OS, the Internet.
The Internet has changed technology because it can be adapted to fit any use. It’s the crude oil of the computing world. The oil industry has Exxon, BP, Petrobras, Rosneft. The internet has Google, Facebook, Amazon, Yandex, Mozilla, Dropbox.
What gets me excited is the race between some of these giants to build their own OSes to push the internet to become the Ultimate OS is should be. Rather than keeping it as a collection of static brochure pages with cheesy flash animations, it’s evolving into a competing suite of apps, tools, and services. This internet version of the space race will allow us to build more powerful, more far-reaching, and more customized experiences for users around the world.
Don’t believe that the internet will overtake Mac OS, Windows, iOS, and even Android as the OS for everyone? Just take a look at the massive efforts of Google with Chrome OS, Dropbox with DBX, Facebook with Connect, Apple with it’s iCloud web app, and even Microsoft with its Office 360. It’s just a matter of time before browsers become the only local application you’ll need.
For those skeptical that the Internet will become that holy grail of computing that will push technology and, by osmosis, humanity to it’s zenith, just wait and see. The internet can be anything you want it to be and it’s hard for other technologies to compete against that. The morale of the story is, Don’t bet against the Internet. Just ask Bill Gates.
