What were the big themes this year? Which stories on OSNews were the most popular? We dove into our database (well, Adam did), and compiled a list of 2010's ten most popular stories on OSNews. As a metric, we didn't look at silly things like hits or whatever, but at the only metric that matters on OSNews, the only metric which really indicates what our registered (and thus, loyal) readers loved to argue about this year: number of comments. Yes, that headline is intentionally confusing.
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Member since:2005-11-02
The term is overly broad. This is only one of its meanings. Another meaning of cloud computing is "processor outsourcing" - or you could say SMP over an internet bus, like @home but you're SETI and the service provider's computer crunches your numbers. There aren't too many general-purpose services of this kind but a lot of what we use (e.g. google) is really providing us processing power we can't/don't want to provide ourselves.
Member since:2009-01-06
Goog point which warrants further exploration.
The degree of intimacy one is willing to seek with the OS managing the Apps and the Device they are executed on depends on many factors:
1) First experience
For those of us whose first experience on a computer was a mainframe with I/O via a card keypunch and a line printer, the OS will likely always remain the collection of programs and utilities used to manage the hardware resources.
For those of us whose first experience has been an internet linked device, the OS will likely only be its visible expression (the Apps and how they are activated and where the content is stored).
By now, users with the later experience dominate the user base/community even though they are not (and will never be) as vocal as the first generation of computer users.
2) Willingness to explore
The "mass" is essentially a passive consumer of content (music, video) or a node in a social network. What is the proportion of creative and/or curious users enjoying the quest to understand and ultimately control the devices they use? Is-it 1 in 100? 1 in a 1,000? 1 in a 1,000,000?
For the vast majority of users, the Browser IS the OS.
Member since:2009-08-27
Let me put it another way: if someone's programming experience is limited to contributing to web browser projects, can they rightfully call themselves an "operating systems developer"? Likewise for a 1960's mainframe user who created some punch cards?
Simply put, the interface is not the operating system itself. When you use a browser, you are transferring bits of data between two machines. The browser simply translates that data into text, pictures, audio and video.
To use the well-worn car comparison, a browser is the equivalent of a dashboard, yet nobody ever confuses a dashboard with the engine itself, nor do they ever refer to it as the "visible" engine. Is the dashboard an interface with some potential for interaction with the engine? Sure, but experience with repairing a dashboard doesn't make one an engine mechanic.
The "browser as OS" mantra is just breathless hype to me. (Not that the tech sector is subject to breathless hype...)
Member since:2007-09-22
Member since:2009-01-06
Having the browser/webserver as the next generation SDK/API is an interesting thought.
Going back to the early days of the transition from the command-line to the graphical user interface, much was said about the "device browser" a.k.a. "Finder" in the Mac world and "File Manager/Explorer" in the Microsoft world. Much was also said about the BeOS Tracker and how great it was to the point of being a distinctive feature of BeOS.
In essence, the browsing/exploring concept, coupled with search engines, apps servers/stores, content servers/stores, and the safe handling of active content allow web resources to be treated in similar ways as local resources. This from a very user-centric horizon.
Anyways, the cloud concept has some appeal - although in my mind, the "home hosting base" should be home, not in half-way accross the world. Doubt this would be practical with a dial-up connection 
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Google added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."
"It was the only moment I heard regret slip into Otellini's voice during the several hours of conversations I had with him. 'The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut,' he said. 'My gut told me to say yes.'" The world would've been a much different place - Apple would have been less dependant on Samsung for its chips, which probably would've meant less money for Samsung to develop its Galaxy business.Glass is getting some love at Google I/O as well. New applications have been released - Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Elle, Tumblr, and CNN. Perhaps more interesting: the newly announced Google Glass Developer Kit will allow offline applications and direct hardware access - great for hacking and expanding Glass' potential. This kit will really allow hackers to put Glass through its paces.
"But Beck and Merrill decided that simply banning toxic players wasn't an acceptable solution for their game. Riot Games began experimenting with more constructive modes of player management through a formal player behavior initiative that actually conducts controlled experiments on its player base to see what helps reduce bad behavior. The results of that initiative have been shared at a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on panels at the Penny Arcade Expo East and the Game Developers Conference." Absolutely fascinating stuff. I'm a League of Legends player, and to be honest, the community isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be. I'm happy Riot games has the guts to employ science to address the issue.
"Android and iOS, the number one and number two ranked smartphone operating systems worldwide, combined for 92.3% of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013 as Windows Phone crept past BlackBerry for 3rd place. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android smartphone vendors and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million units worldwide during 1Q13, up 59.1% from the 125.4 million units shipped during 1Q12." Windows Phone doubles from a few to twice few, iOS loser market share as its growth is slower than that of the overall market. BlackBerry continues slide into irrelevance."According to the latest research from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies service, global Android smartphone profits reached US$5 billion in total during the first quarter of 2013. Samsung dominated and captured an impressive 95 percent share of all Android smartphone profits." Wow."During its Keynote today, Google announced new features coming to its flagship search function - you know, that thing we all started using Google for. VP Amit Singhal spent some time discussing what Google's search functionality will eventually morph into. Google's strategy is summarized by three words: answer, converse, and anticipate. Singhal explained that many of the pieces of these upcoming changes can already be seen in products that Google has recently introduced - namely, Google Knowledge Graph and Google Now, with perhaps a splash of Google Glass, too." I hold on to my hat every time Google changes Search. It's such a vital product in my daily life.
Member since:
2009-08-27
The browser is only the "new OS" to people who don't understand what an OS is. Perhaps it's the new "software suite", but to say it's an OS is to be lulled by marketing nonsense. (Given how people these days are so GUI-centric, this misconception is understandable.)
The concerning thing about the "browser as OS" mentality is that it plays into the whole "cloud computing" sham. (If we called "cloud computing" for what it really is, "data storage outsourcing", it wouldn't sound nearly as sexy to the easily-swayed.)