The death of Windows & Desktop OS’s?

I think we’re close to seeing it! Finally the day where we won’t have to install OS’s on our devices! The day when we just choose what browser or browsing experience we want & don’t have to bother with everything else. We won’t have to worry about importing data because it’ll be completely on the cloud and easily accessible with one click!

But of course that’ll have to happen with adoption from the rest of the industry & all the tech companies. So this adoption will come slowly. Over the course of possibly 5 or more years!

Here’s what will need to happen for this to be a successful transition:

• Kiss goodbye to installing the OS yourself & other hassles! OS makers & OEM’s will have to learn that people don’t want to hassle with their OS & the software they have on their devices. They just want a device that will give them what they want! The average consumer just wants something that’ll give them access to email, web surfing, and apps at a touch of a button.

• Software makers & OEMs will have to move to the cloud. Whether or not they like it, they need to move to the cloud to be successful. Their data is at risk when they handle everything on old fashion desktops. Moving their data & software to the cloud won’t be easy, but it’ll be a worth while investment!

• Move the operating system to the cloud I know Microsoft doesn’t like the idea, but transferring Windows to the cloud would be a wise choice. OS makers such as Microsoft who still proves to be successful in the desktop OS space, are being forced to move their software into the cloud, eliminating the need for big hard drives & CD’s to install their software. Take Google’s Chrome OS as a good example, it’s something you run on your system that is just a complete browser-based solution that can do the best of all worlds! It’ll be capable of checking email & doing day-to-day activities like web browsing as well as running web-based applications. And HTML5 will make running web-apps possible!

• The User experience should be nice & friendly. The only thing that would complete the online-based OS would be installation. You shouldn’t make people install the solution to make this possible. It should just come with the device & even the first time the customer turns on the device, it’ll just work. Their data will be online so with a touch of a button, they’ll have their personal data. This system will allow them to run their web-apps right out of the box without problems. But software makers need to improve the experience for this to work. An example would be Microsoft making a web-based OS that doesn’t require any user intervention from the start. It should include a web browser (if it was Microsoft I’d assume they’d put the cruddy Internet Explorer on it) and nothing else. Because all the user’s data & applications they use & love will be on the web. Google offers a solution like this called Google Chrome OS. It’s basically the Google Chrome browser running like an operating system. Except they need to complete the experience by making it so we don’t have to slip a disc in every time to run it. Just have it built into the device!

• Users need to adapt too. Many people already use the web. However, most of the world’s web users don’t understand or care to know what a web browser is. Most users just see whatever is their by default and go with it because it’s “easy” or “convenient”. Which is why IE’s (Internet Explorer) global market share is so high! This part is why I think it’ll take some number of years before this complete transition to the web will take place. If we as the smart techies of the tech industry come together to educate the general web population about web browsers & the choices they have between browsers, then we can completely transition to the cloud.