Thoughts on Operating Systems

This morning I noticed something that made me smile. I was switching between computing devices that were around my desk because I use specific devices for certain tasks. I use a smartphone as a phone but could do many other things with it. I use tablets for some things that I could also do on the smartphone or a laptop and I use a laptop for things that I could do as well with a tablet or smartphone. Why do I use different devices you ask? I guess the answer is: because they’re there.

What made me smile, however, was the fact that no two products use the same operating system! And, more importantly, it doesn’t matter in the least! Even the fact that I use different browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Mobile Safari but never Internet Explorer) doesn’t matter. The internet and the cloud work just as well on all of them.

My normal “work” laptop uses MSFT WinV (it’s old but set up the way I like it) and my downstairs laptop uses Google ChromeOS. My Smartphones all use Android OS of different vintages with 2.3.6 and 4.0.4 the ones I use most. My tablets (I use 3 regularly) use iOS 6.1, Android 2.2 and 3.2.1.

In my humble opinion, I am not the exception to the rule but I exemplify the new reality in computers: the OS doesn’t matter any more.