Just a thought

[vishal_rv]

We keep hearing about competition between google and microsoft. What if ... google starts funding open source OS or comes up with it own OS?
A launch of gmail increased all mailbox sizes, I wounder what will happen to OS and in particular windows! No matter what happens I am sure users will be winners.

Comments

[raghunandang]

Sure anything can happen. Lets ideate for a while. What can be so remarkably different in OS? For me, the thought that different components of the OS can be broken up and provided as a hosted service, so that the terminal used to access the internet is a "dumb" terminal ...this thought is a remarkable step forward. This needs the demarcation of core OS features and the add-ons.

Another really cool thing that would happen in this future is that there would be fundamental OS which provides network connectivity and other basic things (small enough to be packaged on a flash chip) and everything else is on the network. If i need to type a word document, i type out http://word.msn.com and i get the MS word interface, i click save, and the UI gives me an option to save locally (if i have a HDD), or on network storage which could be provided by MSN or some other vendor (whoever provides storage space for the least money and best service wins). I feel like listening to music, i type out https://player.winamp.com ..

The basic idea ofcourse is that users should have access to the best possible utility for a chosen function, at the best possible price. Doesnt make sense for someone to buy the entire word package irrespective of whether the user is a heavyduty or lightweight user ... pay per use basic or the value pricing model .. thats the way of the future ... not just for OS but for any software .... anyways, i think i am just rambling on ... Software as Service has that effect on me ...:-)