The Browser is the Operating System . . . NOT!

My old buddy David Strom opened up a can of worms on his Facebook page today. So I took a bite:

What’s with all the discussion on Browsers being Operating Systems?

Here’s my two cents:

The assertion that a browser ‘is’ an operating system is ridiculous. The OS one runs IN a browser under the debate-of-late model sits on top of another (the !) operating system.

OTOH: Once Google releases their OS and it becomes ‘the’ operating system in whatever computers it ends up installed on, replacing Windows/Symbian/MacOS/Linux/whatever, then the conversation becomes real . . . and exactly the one Microsoft has fought the department of Justice over for 15 years now; at that point, there will be/can be no separating the browser from the OS.

Get ready for THAT antitrust debate!