this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2023
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A website isn't going to make my CPU communicate with my PCIe bus
Of course, without an operating system, all you have is hardware and other devices. But I meant for the casual desktop user, this does not really matter for them I don't think. I'm sorry, I forgot to put it in the question. Obviously operating systems must exist, I get that, but I mean that for a desktop user, who treats their computers as bootloaders to the browser, so to speak, will different operating systems be relevant for them, i.e. the majority of users?
To put it simply, no.
It's really exemplified by Chrome OS users, that is pretty much a browser bootloader, sure there's more to it than that, but the majority of users isn't going to even find out about crostini and whatnot, because if they can get all the applications they need on the browser then they're good to go.
So, as long as the browser is able to tap into the hardware in a performant enough way to enable all the kinds of applications that were once thought to be native only, the potential for the browser to replace all other apps is there.
For those who care about the technicalities there will always be value in choosing an OS with specific features though
True that. I think because for me, as a casual user, yes I use Linux, but I only use it basically for browsing, media consumption (songs, movies), writing down notes, simple office suite, some light gaming, and that's pretty much it. Sure there's the direction that Linux applications are run in containers like Flatpaks, but I can also imagine the direction of almost everything running on a browser engine since it's cross-platform. Whether I choose Debian or Fedora or Arch or MacOS or HaikuOS or whatever - I don't think there's gonna be any significant difference between them.
Keep in mind, I'm talking from the perspective of a filthy casual. More technical/philosophical-minded people may have different approaches in their computing altogether.