The OS Doesn’t Matter…

This post is amusing because it writes off Windows, but then claims that the UX and the developer tools are the two areas where there's a lot of work to be done on modern UNIX systems.<p>For those who haven't used them professionally, Microsoft's developer tools are absolutely fantastic. And not just the editors, debuggers, and code assistance -- the profiling, system monitoring, and large project workflow tools are years ahead of anything that you can get off-Windows. Even if you're willing to pay Real Money to IBM, the only other serious tools vendor left, or pre-merger Sun, which had the best non-Windows profiling support in-system. Coming back to XCode, the GNU stack, and Eclipse after years on the MSFT platform was like taking a flying leap back into 1998.<p>UX is pretty consistent on both the Apple and Windows platforms. Once you learn a couple of apps, you've basically learned them all. I can't say that for the Linux desktop, where apps still seem to be roughly as consistent as architectural patterns across 3rd party Java frameworks. It's hard to imagine something "better" without moving to a new device factor so that you don't alienate your user base.

To me, this is like a automotive executive saying "the engine doesn't matter, they're all the same anyway". The engine probably <i>doesn't</i> directly matter to most customers and they <i>are</i> mostly the same. However, it's lunacy to say that the heart of your product isn't important. If the engine has problems, your customers have problems. If the OS has problems, your customers have problems too.<p>Yeah, developer tools and APIs are very important, but they're only as good as the platform they target.

Actually Windows NT was a completely new kernel that had nothing to do with the old Windows 3.1/95/98/ME stuff.

Though this is slightly unrelated, I wish I could send this article to every software company who makes the tools I need, but only makes them windows compatible. I'm all unix on my end, but I'm having to scrape together emergency funds for a windows box that can run ESRI and other GIS systems (my systems are just old enough to prevent a feasible dual boot as well). It's not huge issue, but definitely an inconvenience.

"The OS" doesn't matter because it has been decoupled from "the platform", which remains crucial. Developing for Android or iOS, you are exposed only to vague clues that they are implemented on top of Unix. The only reason the OS ever did matter is because virtual machines and complete API abstraction layers have not always been practical.<p>Also, writing off QNX as just another Unix is a mistake. An RTOS with synchronous IPC baked in to the kernel is potentially game changing technology, though I am skeptical that RIM will manage to fully exploit it.

I got interested in technology at the time when the mantra was "UNIX is dead, Windows is the future" It's amazing how much things have changed. It's probably a testament to how good Windows actually is that Microsoft has been able to hold onto the desktop computer market while the rest of the technology industry has adopted Linux/UNIX on such a large scale. It's a fun exercise to make a mental note of all the various Linux/UNIX devices you see in a day. SOHO routers, TIVOs, TVs, SmartPhones etc. It's everywhere.

To me it looked like Apple would scrap OS 9 for BeOS, but after Steve Jobs came back it was forgotten. I remember playing around with BeOS at the time and thought it was pretty fun, though I don't know much about it. Is it UNIX based? Has it gone anywhere since?

&#62; The App Store genre, invented or not in Cupertino, is now part of that loop, a killer OS component, one that deserves a Monday Note of its own.<p>There's very little out there that Apple can honestly lay claim to having invented. Refined, improved, made look silky smooth, sure. Invented? No. OSX is built on ... *Step technology. The Mac OS Classic GUI is taken from the Lisa, which is taken from the Xerox Parc. The MP3 Player? Nope, not theirs either.<p>All of those are great examples of something Apple has taken from elsewhere, refined and improved. The App Store concept had been implemented some time beforehand by Linspire (with Click 'n' Buy for Lindows) which in turn was a front-end to Debian's APT package management tool.

Let's not forget Lisp OSes like Genera or Xerox's. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.

When many database systems or language implementations rely on os cache, scheduling, threading and eventing implementations among other things then yes, the os matters.

&#62;<i>Windows will live on — in a PC industry now at a plateau.</i><p>In America, maybe. Are they claiming the number of PCs will not increase significantly? Especially given their losing ground to OSX, they're most certainly not at a plateau that isn't self-inflicted.

I wish the writer of this article, Jean-Louis Gassée, could have had better luck leading Be Inc and BeOS, as it was my all time favorite OS. I still run it in emulation, from time to time.