Considering dual boot and the BOS

One of the weirder things that happened for me years ago was reading through harsh critiques of the concept of Chromebooks, which I consider to be using a Browser Operating System or BOS in that the focus is on getting you to the browser quickly. So you build around it.

However when I first talked about a BOS in a post on this blog May 2008, I also brought up dual boot:

The BOS could even start Windows or Linux or whatever else operating system you wanted--if you needed.

One of those fun things is to go back to your own writing years later. But my motivation here is in considering recent reports speculating on the Android operating system and the Chrome operating system of Chromebooks as if they might be combined.

It dawned on me that if someone wanted to follow the roadmap I gave, they might instead consider putting out hybrid dual-boot systems, like with Android and Chrome OS.

Of course Linux already has dual boot capability, so some people run Linux and Chrome OS anyway. But if that were something official? And some top notch reporters didn't have the tech expertise to understand it?

Might they not think it meant something else?

And I'm just speculating myself but gives me an opportunity to expand on something that means a lot to me. And I wish there were more BOS computers out there! Talk Chromebooks as best example of which I know. And I think hybrid dual boots may be the computers of the future.

Some might wonder what's the point of two? But then you can keep unnecessary junk for it out of the BOS, which is a lot of the point in the first place, remember? It can also be more secure, as well as faster.

Then it's with the needs of the user, not limited by their equipment.

After all, the user matters most, right? And if a system can boot quick so you can get on the web and do everything from your browser, and then switch to something else if you found you needed it? Who wouldn't want that?

I know I would.


James Harris

Why to me the COS is so BOS

Putting out ideas for me is just LOTS of fun where I put out so many and have explained how I see it. Who knows if anyone has used any of them, but I DO like when is clear something is similar out there.

Which lets me talk about one of my favorite examples, as years ago was irritated waiting on a certain operating system to load, so started thinking about a Browser Operating System, which I picked as that makes it BOS, when you turn into the inevitable acronym.

Which to me was interesting as to why that wasn't heavily used already.

But the gist of the idea is that for some people the browser is where they do most of their activity, and I knew that as was on my browser waiting for this other operating system to load wondering what it was freaking doing.

Today Chrome OS is to me a BOS implemented in Chromebooks.

And that's why to me COS is so BOS.


James Harris

My opinion on best case idea scenario

The web world is so new that I find myself trying to figure out things, and do things that make sense from that analysis so maybe to other people it's too mysterious. And while I think mystery matters, I also think it pays to help people understand.

So I'm going to explain what I think is a best case idea scenario, by using an example of what I think was very close.

Years ago I was frustrated with my pc waiting on it to load.

After a bit I opened a web browser which was going slowly while the freaking thing continued to load, and I'm thinking to myself: that's silly, why is this computer loading a bunch of stuff I don't need?

So at some point I decided to write a post. And while writing, it occurred to me that what I was thinking was that there should be a browser focused operating system. And I'm like, hey, that's BOS.

So that's what I called it. And that post was back May 2008. And if you read it, I was a little hyperbolic. Was kind of in a ranting mood that day I guess. Smiling re-reading it now, as it's not too bad, but that's why I try to not post too emotional. And noticed that I didn't go too much into specifics though I kind of surprise myself reading it as to how many I did give, or tried to give.

But you know it's just some ideas I had. Had a place to put them, and kind of wanting that to happen, plus I assumed it was inevitable.

And of course Google came out with a COS, the Chrome Operating System.

Did they use my ideas? I have no idea and would just as soon presume, no. It's not like it's that big of a leap. And reality is that I don't need the attention if they did, though I was mentally prepared for it. Like I've done with lots of things.

The web lets you do this weird thing, as it gives independent validation for the factual points. Notice, nothing for anyone to challenge in this post, and no reason for me not to have put that post up over 6 years ago!

The web validates everything for you. That's so cool. Takes a while to process though.

But take it from me, it's very annoying arguing with people about stuff. Web can handle that for you on automatic.

That's my best case idea scenario: I put out some ideas, a little later the market produces something I think is similar, and I don't get bothered by any of it.


James Harris

Return of the thin client

When I took my first college course back in 1982, the computer I worked on was not a desktop general purpose computer, but a mainframe. Access was through a terminal--the original thin client.

I remember sitting at the screen those first excited times, happy to be finally able to play with a real live computer after having watched so much sci-fi and then disappointed with how little I was able to do. But then again I was only 12. My mom had put me in a (boring) computer course at the local community college.

Regardless, the reality for computer use for quite a while was access to a mainframe from a terminal, which for some has never changed, while for most the pc, or personal computer was the general purpose device that gave them their first computer experience.

However, the thing is so powerful that for most it is a mysterious box. And for experienced computer users like myself, it is often a mysterious box, and as the disk drive light flashes, and I can hear it whirring, I often wonder to myself, what in the hell is it doing?

Today more specialized computing allows people more precision in fitting their needs, from these incredible mobile phones that do just about anything, to e-readers and who knows what else, you can specialize.

The web has emerged as kind of the ultimate mainframe.

And we can plug into it through our general purpose desktop computers, but I've found that often that is a waste of power as I spend all day on the web, doing things like, well like typing this blog post!

Why should I have a very powerful general purpose desktop wasting cycles on just using the super computer most people know as the World Wide Web?

So I'm quite happy that thin clients are back in force with the Chrome OS, and I kind of get an extra kick as a few years ago I was predicting the rise of the BOS, short for Browser Operating System.

The post was May 2008, and I titled it somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but I think that name is appropriate. Little did I know at that time that it would be over three years before I'd find time to comment on a company putting one on the market.

But then again, with ideas often it takes a little while, and hey, I get to toss out that I was one of the people predicting such a thing some time ago. Reading over what was a bit of a rant I have to chuckle, but also I feel gratified. I was, after all, right I'm sure.

As computing becomes more specialized we all benefit. Efficiency--machines that don't waste their time, or ours--is the result. And hey, maybe I can spend less time wondering what in the hell the computer is doing, as I know what it is doing.

It is working, for me.


James Harris

The BOS

Not like it's a new idea I think but clearly now we live in a browser centric world, so as has been said by so many others many times before, the next best thing is a browser operating system, which of course, gives you BOS.

Before the DOS was the start of the computer revolution, the disk operating system, but many are the times I'd love to cut my computer on, and simply have my browser--Firefox--come up and go browsing with an instant on, as lately I do almost nothing else from Windows.

We were fishing around in the dark before, but clearly now it is the Internet that brings in the true Information Age, and with so much centered around the web, it just makes sense that you can build from the browser itself.

So the future of OS belongs to the group, company or group of companies that build the BOS.

What's remarkable about building an operating system built around the browser is that you can make it fully parallel, pulling in the best from multi-core systems, and you can use, I think it's virtualization? To connect it back to the old, like to Windows operating system.

And you can then get a true sandbox, where the Internet is isolated to one piece of what happens on your computer, while for other stuff you can use the old, and run Windows.

The BOS could even start Windows or Linux or whatever else operating system you wanted--if you needed.

And in the case of Windows you could, after an instant on as the BOS would load faster than your mind could notice so that cutting on your computer would be an immediate experience--as it should be--when you did something needing Windows you could sit there for minutes as it loaded and understand why the future is immediacy.

I am sick and tired of losing minutes from my life waiting for a lot of crap to load that I will never need!

Why do we pay with our lives for nothing?

The BOS is the future. The people that produce it, are the ones who usher in the true Information Age, and in doing so, save so many of us, so much time.


James Harris