OS independent operating systems

We (meaning us techie-type people) have always lamented that the web browser has been co-opted to do things that it was never meant to do. Although "browsing the web" has gotten more and more complex there were some things that you just shouldn't do with a web browser...or so we thought. Well, the shouldn'ts have officially been thrown to the wind as both Google and now Microsoft have been actively engaged in preparing browser-based operating systems. So, in effect, this is an operating system that is independent of an operating system. There have been efforts along these lines before (eyeOS comes to mind) and we know full well how nifty browser-based-applications can be, but this takes it to another level.

I can't say that I am not excited about this. I am always looking for ways to do my work in an OS-independent manner and the promise that these applica...er...operating systems hold is quite extraordinary. For example, it would be great to run a Linux instance and then access Chrome (Google's OS) and Gazelle (Microsoft's OS) in a couple of different web-browsers accessing applications that are finely tuned for those environments. What about an instance where a Gazelle OS is running a web browser with an instance of Chrome running? And on it goes...

Of course the proof is in the pudding and I am thinking that the early releases of these environments are going to be more vanilla than butterscotch, but, as both the iPhone and webOS has shown us, we are entering a new era of functionality that is centered in connectedness. For good or bad this is the future.

And what is a little OS war between friends anyway?



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