The Net Operating System

I don’t agree that the net is the operating system, at least not in the near future.

The net cannot be considered now as an OS, it is developed to link a variety of computer networks so that they could function as a connected network. It can be seen as an application or a middleware as Webber said, "I can see a whole bunch of useful application protocols and infrastructure turning the Internet into a useful piece of application middleware. But it may be a little bit of a stretch for now to call it an OS,"

If we take the email application as an example, it can communicate without the Internet, but cannot without the operating system. Users can send emails using their PC’s and traditional network connecting an organization, but we cannot send emails without an email client or email server, which are installed on an operating system or web browser if it’s connected to the globe. Of course the net extended the use of the email to a wider range.

Andrew said, “'internet as an operating system' was coined by people who began viewing the OS as irrelevant, which it isn't. Although the web and browser enable you to access a lot of applications, you still need an operating system for all the everyday things such as file management, non-browser applications, and drivers for hardware - what you have in the operating system limits what you can do."

Same thing for media files, which can only be played by a media player, true some web browsers support streaming without a media player but still add-ons for those web browsers need to be installed. All application are still dependent on an operating system.

As well lots of challenges are standing on the way of the net to be the operating system, like security and high data transfers if it will be the main data storage for the users.

As a conclusion, operating systems are the backbone for today’s computing system; it is the software to host applications, servers, PC’s and mobile phones. The net is not mature yet to be considered as the OS although it has developed and evolved.

Mohannad

References:

Arif Mohamed, (2008) Moving closer to the Internet as an operating system [Online] Available from: http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/05/23/230812/Moving-closer-to-the-internet-as-an-operating-system.htm

[Accessed 15 January 2011]

Brookshear J. 2009, Computer Science An overview, edition 10, pp 134-135, Boston: Pearson Education Inc.

Tim O’Reilly, (2010) The State of the Internet Operating System [Online] Available from: http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/03/state-of-internet-operating-system.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+oreilly%2Fradar%2Fatom+%28O%27Reilly+Radar%29

[Accessed 15 January 2011]