this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2023
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With lots of things being developed through web technologies, and many things being web-based so that it is cross-platform, will operating systems still be relevant?

We can differ philosophically by using Debian or Arch or Windows or Mac, but if nowadays applications are web-based or developed through something like Electron such that it can run on practically all modern operating systems. what is the relevance of operating systems galore?

Don't get me wrong I love FOSS and Linux and stuff, but it seems that the paradigm right now is creating web applications, with many things being web-based.

Am I off, or is this something you also think about?

P.S. I'm a total noob when it comes to IT, so the question might be weirdly phrased.

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[–] Reddit_was_fun 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I have been in IT for 30 years. This has been a recurring theme for at least 20 of those years. It has gone by different names but the idea hasn’t changed. Web technology has come a long way but there are too many developers still writing traditional apps to kill the OS completely. While new greenfield apps may be web first, most of the corporate world is running on legacy apps that are tied to the OS.

[–] over_clox 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Still requires some sort of background software to render the pixels of the text, decode the video and audio, etc.

Web apps don't come with all that, they call on the operating system to do those things.

[–] mafbar 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Of course, but my thinking is sort of that for example, when it comes to Linux distros, there's no longer any meaningful difference even between Ubuntu or Fedora or Arch for casual users; since applications now tend to be containerised or be web-based. Distro choice may not relevant afterwards.

[–] kevinbacon 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Distro choice doesn't actually matter in any regard other than convenience, you can make any distro into any other distro by simply changing packages and modifying configs, the kernel is what matters.

Obligatory: containerisation is bloat, electron is bloat.

[–] mafbar 2 points 1 year ago

the kernel is what matters

Fundamentally, that's true. Of course the average user isn't going to think or probably even know what a kernel is, nor I'm unsure if they even have to.

containerisation is bloat, electron is bloat

I'm not a technical expert, but while containerisation is bloat, it's modularity is a plus, I think. Conceptually I like it.

[–] joel_feila 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

one program I work with every day looks like it was first built for windows 95. IT so old we have to skip the Java update notification or else it will break the program.

[–] mafbar 1 points 1 year ago

Sheesh. But I guess the thinking is that if it works, then why change it, right?

[–] mafbar 1 points 1 year ago

So you don't see traditional native apps running on specific OSes or even cross-OSes as being obsolete for quite some time?