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I'd argue that the GNU/Unix text interface is open, interoperable, and highly polished. The key ingredient is time. Modern windowing systems are also very simi
by ISL 8y ago
I'd argue that the GNU/Unix text interface is open, interoperable, and highly polished. The key ingredient is time.
Modern windowing systems are also very similar. A Windows 3.1 or early MacOS user would have no trouble using a computer today.
Touch and phone interfaces will get there, too, as both software and culture evolve together.
I can't wait for, and would love to support, the Debian of phone architectures. In past HN threads, it has been suggested to me that the real blocker for a good open phone OS is at the hardware/kernel level. That was the state of the hardware environment in the late nineties and early 2000s.
Give it time, effort, and support, and a great and open OS will emerge.
- danieldk 8y agoI can't wait for, and would love to support, the Debian of phone architectures. In past HN threads, it has been suggested to me that the real blocker for a good open phone OS is at the hardware/kernel level. That was the state of the hardware environment in the late nineties and early 2000s. I would like to be that optimistic, but I am not. The PC has always been a fundamentally open platform and hardware has been supported by many OSes for a long time. When I was young, we would run MS-DOS, DR-DOS, OS/2 and Windows 3.x (which was strictly spoken not an OS). After 1994 I also ran Linux and BSD and I never had any real problems hardware-wise. There was a difficult time around the turn of the century with WinModems and printers that only supported Windows. But that was more of a temporary regression.
- ISL 8y agoI remember working hard for good graphics-card support and perpetually rolling my own kernels to support even year-old motherboards. The biggest blocker in our experimental labs for open-source software was always hardware drivers. These days, linux is extremely common and generally well-supported.
- minkiu 8y agoI agree with you mostly, but I think the OS is there (Linux) we just need more mainstream Open Hardware, and hopefully Librem 5 will be the one to push things forward.