Imagine if the phone you check social media on when you
wake was seamlessly integrated with the laptop you use at home, as well as the
desktop PC you use at the office. Imagine if they all ran the same apps, shared
the same files, and held the same data. You could answer a phone call or text
on whichever you wanted, and could control them all remotely with the press of
a button. Even the voice assistant you call to while cooking dinner could be
plugged into the same system.
That’s not the world we live in today — but Google,
Apple, and Microsoft are doing their best to create it. The fragmented worlds
of mobile and desktop operating systems must be unified, and when they are,
it’ll be a watershed moment in computing.
FAILING
TOWARD THE FUTURE
Apple and Google have been sidestepping the problem for
years by focusing on their own segmented product lines, but in 2012, Microsoft
tackled it head on. The
ill-fated experiment may not have achieved much success, but it was a
recognition of the problem and a clear swing at solving it.
The best web experiences were redesigned from the ground
up to work well on mobile and desktop simultaneously.
“Windows 8 shatters perceptions of what a
PC now really is,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at its launch in 2012.
“We’ve truly reimagined Windows and kicked off a new era for Microsoft. It’ll
deliver a no-compromise experience.”
Microsoft imagined a future where every device had touch
capabilities, and one where no one would miss the traditional interfaces of
Windows 7. Unfortunately, it was a bit ahead of its time.
Desktop users didn’t see any benefit to relearning
everything they’d ever known about Windows, and while it looked the same across
mobile and desktop, it didn’t quite work like a single operating system.
MICROSOFT
AND APPLE HAVE TRICKS UP THEIR SLEEVES
At Build 2018, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella spent a lot
of time talking about the current reality of our need for a unified operating
system, as well as what the company was doing to solve the problem.
“We need to up-level
even our concept of what an operating system is.”
“In a single day, you’re using multiple devices, you’re
at multiple locations working with multiple people, and interacting using
multiple senses,” said Nadella in his opening keynote.
“That’s the world
we already live in. We need an operating system, we need a platform, that
abstracts the hardware at that level — that creates an app model at that level.
Single devices remain important, and will remain important. But this
meta-orchestration is what we need to do. We need to up-level even our concept
of what an operating system is.”
Microsoft’s current answer is to focus
on cloud services, which can be accessed and used regardless of what device
you’re on. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the company is actively redesigning
Windows to extend well beyond your PC.
FAILING
TOWARD THE FUTURE
Apple and Google have been sidestepping the problem for
years by focusing on their own segmented product lines, but in 2012, Microsoft
tackled it head on. The
ill-fated experiment may not have achieved much success, but it was a
recognition of the problem and a clear swing at solving it.
The best web experiences were redesigned
from the ground up to work well on mobile and desktop simultaneously.
“Windows 8 shatters perceptions of what a PC now really
is,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at its launch in 2012. “We’ve truly
reimagined Windows and kicked off a new era for Microsoft. It’ll deliver a
no-compromise experience.”
Microsoft imagined a future where every device had touch
capabilities, and one where no one would miss the traditional interfaces of
Windows 7. Unfortunately, it was a bit ahead of its time. Desktop users didn’t
see any benefit to relearning everything they’d ever known about Windows, and
while it looked the same across mobile and desktop, it didn’t quite work like a
single operating system.
Rewind a half-decade and websites were mostly static.
Pull up your favorite site on a 4-inch smartphone, and you were stuck zooming
in and poking with frustration at unresponsive links. Pull that same website up
on your 28-inch monitor, and you’d find yourself staring at gobs of blank space.
Since then, developers have found ways to translate the
desktop web experience into something that makes sense for touch-based controls
without sacrificing usefulness on large desktop displays. Websites are built to
know what kind of device you’re using and adjust accordingly. The best web
experiences were redesigned from the ground up to work well on mobile and
desktop simultaneously. That’s the web of today, and it’s also a blueprint for
the future of computers as a whole.
MICROSOFT
AND APPLE HAVE TRICKS UP THEIR SLEEVES
At Build 2018, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella spent a lot
of time talking about the current reality of our need for a unified operating
system, as well as what the company was doing to solve the problem.
“We need to up-level even our concept of what an
operating system is.”
“In a single day, you’re using multiple devices, you’re
at multiple locations
working with multiple people, and interacting using
multiple senses,” said Nadella in his opening keynote.
“That’s the world we already live in. We need an operating system, we need a platform, that abstracts the hardware at that level — that creates an app model at that level. Single devices remain important, and will remain important. But this meta-orchestration is what we need to do. We need to up-level even our concept of what an operating system is.”
The Surface Phone is not just a hardware project, of
course. It’s rumored to use an
operating system called Windows Core OS, which is based on the Windows 10
shell. Again, Microsoft is picking up where it left off with Windows 8,
dreaming of “One Windows” that works on platforms ranging from the Xbox to the
Surface Phone. Microsoft isn’t going to be replacing Windows 10 soon, but it’s
certainly planning to extend and modify it to work on other platforms.
GOOGLE’S
FUCHSIA LEADS THE WAY
Google has been transforming Chromebooks into
touch-friendly devices for over a year now, slowly bringing features from
Android to the mobile apps it now supports. It’s only a temporary solution.
Google’s real solution has been in the works for years now; brand new operating
system called Fuchsia.
Fuchsia has been built to go beyond the boundaries of
mobile (Android) and desktop (Chrome OS) platforms — or, perhaps, converge them
in a more meaningful way. Although it’s bare-bones, Fuchsia gives us a peek into
one possible future.
Recently, a developer posted a browser-based demo for
Fuchsia with Google’s publicly available code over on GitHub. There’s not much
to do (or even much to see), but it’s our first real look at what Google has
been working on behind the curtain.
To do it, Fuchsia doesn’t just add elements from each. It
reimagines some of the basic structures of traditional computing like windows,
multitasking, and opening apps. It’s built around fullscreen apps, like a
mobile device, but gives you a clear view of what apps you have open, similar
to MacOS’ multi-desktop view. At center of it all is an amorphous Google search
bar, which can do everything from open local apps and files to search the web.
This is the future of computers, and it’s
not as far off as it might seem.
A button in the top left corner of the screen lets you
move back and forth between a smaller smartphone screen and a larger laptop
screen. That essential elemental responds to different display sizes just like
a responsive website would. As it stands, Fuchsia won’t convince anyone to
leave iOS or Windows 10 behind, but it’s taking the need for a unified
operating system seriously.
This is the future of computers, and it’s not as far off
as it might seem. All three companies see the problem at hand and are doing everything
in their power to be the first to solve it.
But when the future comes, it won’t be all sunshine and
rainbows. With the conveniences of a unified operating system come the added
difficulty of escaping them. With only three companies in the race, the real
walled gardens won’t be built around devices, but between the ecosystems of
Google, Apple, and Microsoft. Leaving one for the other, or for a new
competitor, is bound to be a painful experience. If you think moving from iOS
to Android is difficult now, just imagine doing that when your entire digital
life is tied into it.
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