Every transaction processed by your credit card company, every text you send, every video game you’ve ever played, are all possible because of an operating system.

It’s the most basic, fundamental interaction you have with a computer, especially for consumer technology. If a company sold a great phone but its operating system was difficult to navigate and didn’t have a variety of applications (cough, Windows Phone), then it would fail.

The original iPhone was a revelation for the smartphone age, with an operating system that was easier to navigate than anything else on the market, with well-designed features and applications people actually wanted to use. The phone was simple and intuitive to interact with, and the software complimented the touch screen interface in a way that no other phone had done before.

But despite updates, operating systems are often stagnant, a relic of the era in which they were developed. The operating systems we use on laptops or desktops, like Windows, Mac OS, and even Linux, were originally built before the internet era, meaning many programs exist independently from the web, where we do most of our work now. It’s time for a fresh look at what an operating system, and therefore a computer, can be. The internet and the influx of technology like artificial intelligence has expanded the possibilities for how we interact with our technology, whether that be through our voices, movements, or even tapping at a phone screen.

Even mobile operating systems like Android and iOS are being retrofitted with AI-powered voice assistants and connectivity to the Internet of Things. They “work” but anyone who has regularly used an IoT device or Siri know they’re unreliable and generally limited. Siri has to connect to a server far away to understand what you’re saying, making every conversation halting and cumbersome (if they even qualify as conversations). IoT devices often fail to connect at all, and are easy targets for hackers as they use nonsecure software. For us to enjoy the full capabilities of the web, to have a seamless experience across all our devices, and one that could maybe even pick up where we left off on another device, we need a better system.

Tech companies have ideas about what these next-generation systems will be. Amazon is betting that the future of computing is one where we talk to our devices to get things done. It’s also getting rid of the notion that a computer is just in your hand or on your lap. Amazon is putting its computers in your microwave, your clock, and your car. Each one will learn from you to improve your overall experience.

Google, on the other hand, thinks the laptop can be refined further, just with better software. It’s trying to redesign how a computer fundamentally interacts with the internet, making the whole computer into a web browser. That way the computer can learn how you work on the internet across applications, ultimately customizing itself to its owner

[“source=ft.com]