Mac or Windows: The browser

Over the years we've seen more and more users shift from their desktops and move to the Internet for their needs.

A continuation of the OS-less series...

For photo management, documents, schedules, projects, and of course music there has been one key aspect to all of this - the web browser. A web browser allows us to access all these 'services' provided by other companies on the internet to help us manage our tasks. So it is paramount that most services are browser-based for ease of use and accessibility.

Our first step in getting rid of the OS is to shift all focus of activities to the browser. It can get a bit technical when try to understand how a browser will function without an OS, considering that it is an application that runs on an OS. But the question if whether a Mac or a Windows PC really relevant to our cause? No.

Browsers are a standards based device, an application that helps us communicate. You may be able to run it from a bootable device like your trusty keychain USB drive. Mini OS's have been around for a long time. Some have been embedded into devices. Some even on a floppy disk. The computer does have a fixed storage to launch pre-OS sequences. On the Apple Mac's this area even stores some of the systems preferences. I'll leave the process of putting a support system for our browser in the hands of our very capable software engineers. Maybe they can even put it in a Flash Memory based device, so that we can carry it on a keychain. The browser is a simple application and I don't see too much needed to achieve this. In an ideal OS-less world all hardware would be inexpensive and irrelevent. Not enough RAM. Why should I care? What's more important are the services that actually contribute after the web browser is launched.

Over the years, browsers have become quite advanced. Firefox, by Mozilla, for example is extendable with the help of plugins. You can read your RSS feeds in the browser and even write using the ScribeFire plugin. FTP? No problem with FireFTP. The point being that the browser is highly extendable! Which is really what our OS-less generation requires.

Next time... Getting access to the services. Is OpenID, a solution?