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Kenneth Reitz
40 lines
2.1 KiB
ReStructuredText
40 lines
2.1 KiB
ReStructuredText
The Universal Flaw in Commercial-Based OS's
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:date: 2009-07-10 21:24
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:category: Code
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Designers and Developers around the world, I present to you the
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flaw prevalent in all of today's commercial operating systems. This
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is not a security hole, nor is it a CPU-capping bug. It's more of a
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world-view. We're simply looking at things the wrong way.
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**What ever happened to the days when a computer was a *tool*, rather than an *experience*?**
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Nowadays, computers are viewed by the public as a way of expressing
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oneself. Don't get me wrong, a computer can be all of that and
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more. Certainly, I find a level of solace and self-identity in my
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software/hardware setup. But, a computer, more primarily, is so
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much more than that. A computer, in today's modern consumerist
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mindset, is a box that runs applications that are made by other
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people. You will use the applications either because you think it
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will enhance your quality of life, make you more productive, cure
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you from boredom, or just be plain *neat*. No other options exist,
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just the software that big-name companies produce. Sure, this
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method does sell well and, in the scheme of things, makes a company
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a large amount of money in a short amount of time (which is the
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point of a business, is it not?), but perhaps those big-name
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companies should think a little more long-term for the sake of us
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all. What does this method truly accomplish? It makes people buy
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lots of computers that have power way beyond practicality. This, in
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term, makes software development freeze. In case you haven't
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noticed, we can't do much with computers nowadays that we couldn't
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do 10 years ago, except perhaps check our bank accounts online, and
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that's hardly a major breakthrough rather than an new-found
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application to keep everyone's interest. It self-destructs in the
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end when you think about it. And this, my friends, is the central
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heart of our problem. In our "ever-changing" world of computer
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software, there is little to be found that is truly new or
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exciting. We have a bad habit of putting a new face on an old
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concept and calling it by a different name, when, in reality, we've
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run out of good ideas.
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