But my guess is that in the end nearly everything will be done with a browser, rendering even the operating system redundant or relegated to being just a core component of the browser.
There are still many low-latency high-throughput applications that the web is fundamentally poorly suited for. For example, multitrack audio recording, where 10msec latency is unacceptable, really needs to run locally. Running locally doesn't necessarily exclude the browser as a platform, though. Do expect these types of mostly non-web applications to move to the browser platform as well, just following the trend?
I think I made it as a throwaway comment, but now I look again and yes, it's certainly a possibility. After all, do we really care what the operating system is or what it's doing as long as it delivers the goods?
Actually you can do a lot of work in 10ms, even in JavaScript. The latency of the OS is a lot more of an issue, whether the app is browser based or a non-web application. Recordings have to go somewhere, data is written in large blocks and most systems are only designed for human perception of latency.
Moving the OS into the 'browser' (which can't really be called that in such a scenario) blurs the line between OS and App so I wouldn't rule out functionally real-time performance being possible. How far forward am I permitted to look?
The concept of a "computer" may itself be only temporary. Some Facebook users think they don't use the Internet; in their minds they've bought a single-purpose appliance. This effective reductio ad absurdum leads to various different types of single-purpose machine, each being a different build of a common platform. Who knows?
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I like your perspective. Thanks for the post!
There are still many low-latency high-throughput applications that the web is fundamentally poorly suited for. For example, multitrack audio recording, where 10msec latency is unacceptable, really needs to run locally. Running locally doesn't necessarily exclude the browser as a platform, though. Do expect these types of mostly non-web applications to move to the browser platform as well, just following the trend?
I think I made it as a throwaway comment, but now I look again and yes, it's certainly a possibility. After all, do we really care what the operating system is or what it's doing as long as it delivers the goods?
Actually you can do a lot of work in 10ms, even in JavaScript. The latency of the OS is a lot more of an issue, whether the app is browser based or a non-web application. Recordings have to go somewhere, data is written in large blocks and most systems are only designed for human perception of latency.
Moving the OS into the 'browser' (which can't really be called that in such a scenario) blurs the line between OS and App so I wouldn't rule out functionally real-time performance being possible. How far forward am I permitted to look?
The concept of a "computer" may itself be only temporary. Some Facebook users think they don't use the Internet; in their minds they've bought a single-purpose appliance. This effective reductio ad absurdum leads to various different types of single-purpose machine, each being a different build of a common platform. Who knows?