What would be the role of Linux in web-based operating systems?

Web Platforms

Article from Issue 145/2012
Author(s):

Could Mozilla's announcement of the Boot to Gecko roadmap, along with the continued development of other web-based operating systems, make the Linux distro you're running less important than the desktop environment?

One of my earliest exposures to the real future of web development was at a Netscape conference in Manhattan, where I remember one of the company executives explaining that very soon, the operating system would not be the platform on which applications would be written, but rather the browser.

That was in 1996. At the time, I had very little conception of what the Netscape people were describing. I don't think I was alone; it would be another half decade or so before the idea of web-based apps would even start to be seen and, even then, in the form of "active" pages and "dynamic HTML."

The idea of a truly web-based platform for applications hasn't quite taken off even today. The Linux-based Chrome OS is a near thing, and although many apps are indeed running from the web, native apps can still be installed.

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