Warning this is pure rant. I hate computers. Perhaps it would be more correct to say I hate computer companies. Let me explain.

Anyone who knows me knows that Apple Macintosh is my platform of choice. However I realize it isn’t for everyone. One on my nieces hates the Macintosh. She thinks it is confusing. She really likes Microsoft Windows. I know there are many other people who feel the same way. Some people like Linux. Frankly, there are many things about linux to like. However, the market share is still extremely small for the end user.

Google seems to want to get in on the end user market with an operating system. They have certainly made inroads in the mobile device market with Android.

For purposes of this rant I will lay out a few of my thesis so you can mark me off as a lunatic now.

  1. The Operating System and the Graphical User Interface are two separate things and should be treated as such.
  2. Applications should run on any operating system.
  3. Unix (or Linux) should be the operating system.

My first thesis The Operating System and the User Interface should be Separate. Does anyone remember back in the olden days of DOS. Windows was a user interface that was installed on top of DOS. DOS never went away. Go over to your Windows and open Command Prompt. Viola! It is still there. Microsoft has done everything they can to hide it but DOS is still there. 

Macintosh is built on NetBSD Unix. Open Terminal and play with Unix commands until your heart’s content. 

Linux and its Unix brethren are quite open about keeping the Graphical User Interface separate. On Linux or Unix you can have Gnome, KDE and a veritable host of others each with their particular strengths and weaknesses. This is as it should be. Why? By doing this for the most part Linux avoids the necessity of my second thesis. You can download an app and it will usually run on Ubuntu, Red Hat, SUSE, distributions of Linux and they also run on Gnome, KDE, or most of the other desktop environments.  

My second thesis Applications Should Run On Any Operating System. This is one of those that seems so incredibly simple I can’t believe there is much need for discussion.  

I understand that programmers write programs for the market where they think they can turn a profit. That seems reasonable. Welcome to the free enterprise system. The problem lies in that for many programmers that means writing for Microsoft Windows. After all Microsoft Windows is the most widely used Graphical User Interface. But here is where it gets a little circular. I am a lawyer. Some of the applications I want to use are written ONLY for Microsoft Windows. If I want to use one of the programs badly enough guess what I have to do? That’s right, buy Windows. Thus, reinforcing the notion that Windows is the most popular operating system. I cannot count the number of people who want to run a different operating system but have no choice. 

The solution is so simple. It is my third thesis.

Unix (or Linux) Should Be the Operating System. Unix has been around for many years. Over the course of these many years it has gotten to be rock solid dependable. For a long while Bill Gates criticized Unix because it was old. But with every new iteration of Microsoft Windows Microsoft adopts more features from Unix. Additionally, Unix (or Linux) runs most of the web servers out there, Unix is the core of Apple Macintosh. So who is left that doesn’t  use Unix? I’m looking squarely at you Microsoft. Except even Microsoft uses Unix to run many of their web services such as Hotmail. But they don’t seem to want any part of it for the desktop operating system. Why?