f3l wrote:
> Hello everybody
> Is the browser the new os / operative system ?
>
> we had a discussion with some of the senior programmers at the office,
> they said that the OS will always be very relevant
> I say the OS is irrelevant, and that the Browser is all that matters
> (as long as you can localhost, vim, mysql and ssh without problems).
> they said the OS will never dissapear (old ASM geizers), however, I
> agree, but I don't really think that they will make a difference.
>
> Since the browser is a layer on top of the OS, and the final layer is
> the one that gets all the attention, credit and buzz, (its the color
> of the buttons in your cellphone, not its underlying infrastructure,
> which you couldn't give a damn about (unless you are a geek like
> ourselves), what makes a difference), why should we bother to deepen
> our knowledge of OS s, when we can deepen or knowledge of Browsers, I
> mean, its the trend of the furture, right?, browsers, everywere, even
> in your cellphone?
>
> The infrastructure has a tendency to become invisible, do you know, if
> your software supports x25?
> you probably don't. Even know what x25 is (pardon me, gurus), and if
> you do, you probably don't care, because everything is transparent
> these days (it /could/ become even more transparent, but its slow and
> tedious process of interfaces on top of interfaces on top of
> interfaces, that lead to no good when something in the middle breaks
> (like compiling stuff with lots of imcompatble libs)), and we wre the
> plumbers that are supposed to know every litle quirky detal about
> every damn layer between the user and his/her data...
>
> Email had a similar story, with initially being different
> (protocols?), and stuff, and now by having standarized, well, all that
> stuff doesn't matter anymore, and you could rewrite a simpler veriosn
> of sendmail (hopefully), in less time (right?).
>
>
> I believe that the desktop is becoming less and less important, since
> all these buggy web2.0 js stuff has came out, so
> is the browser you use omre important than the OS?
> and if so, which browser would you recomend? (any votes for lynx?)
>
> you can have your gmail account on linux or windows and it works just
> the same, so why bother with OS wars, when you can have brand new IE
> wars, I mean, Browser wars...
>
> what do you guys think?
>
> should I stop giving a damn?
>
> or should I just move to FFX3 (which btw is the coolest thing ever
> since the sliced bread (check out the new address bar!), which is
> actually making some progress, (I've always been a opera fan, but
> might just convert).
>
> I'm in need of guru assistance and guidance...
>
> thanks in advance, for all of your base are belong to us.
> I mean, all of your kind responses.
>
>

This *is* an OT post here, but as you say it's sort of relevant, as PHP
is part of the increase in online apps. In the past 10 minutes I've done
some stuff with the GIMP that nothing online compares to (or could for a
while at least), and also used a lightweight PHP wiki that could never
be set up or work so easily were it linked to some desktop,
online-only-so-often native application (whatever the OS).

Both have their place and it will stay that way as long as (a) there are
a large number of people NOT with the advantage of a decent/consistent
connection and (b) there is no emergent web technology that can work as
quickly as a native app.

First post, be nice.

tomas