[52-6F-62]

Don't you think the desktop OS as is might be a little played out? I could see moderate changes being made, but no major leaps. We've seen the ChromeOS begin to take off, but largely because of Google's place in the larger market... but again it's Linux-based. FirefoxOS tried, and fizzled out. Android is making its way to the desktop now, and that seems like it would catch on, with the supreme portability of the phone and the increasing power they old -- computationally and in people's lives. Also reflected in Apple pushing the iPad Pro.

Maybe I'm missing something, but with the advent of VR, AR, and (I could be reaching here...) Neural Lace, I think we might see greater strides made in application of any interface theories outside of the OS, or above it.

The next-gen will probably be looking to improve upon higher-level OS interaction, like Siri. So people don't have to understand the technology (even less than they do now) to take fuller advantage of the power of the technology.

[nickpsecurity]

If we talk technologically & not app availability, there's all kinds of things one might do with a better desktop. Academics & random people online stay dreaming up better UI's or other capabilities. I'd like the internal control + self-modification of LISP machines, concurrency support of BeOS, capability-security of KeyKOS or CapDesk, maybe persistence of app data like KeyKOS, reincarnating drivers in user-mode like Minix3, modifiable-for-workload schedulers that prevent one task from taking down system like RTOS's, versioned filesystem like OpenVMS, two motherboards like SGI with clustering like VMS for mission-critical desktops, mini-version of NonStop for desktops for more mission critical, Amiga-style hardware offloading for key stuff like I/O, Burroughs-style CPU that made most code injection or type errors impossible, jumpers write-protecting the chip for my open-source firmware, ECC RAM, and a RAM disk w/ flash backup for main OS & apps to load crazy fast (or it always hibernates w/ hardware acceleration of that or persistance of changes).

That's just a few off the top of my head. If it's a netbook for browsing, it might also use something like Illinois Browser Operating System (IBOS) as its base. Definitely throw in a NUMA chip on the high-performance version, too, so I can finally have me a modern SGI Onyx2 or Altix with 256+ CPU's, TB's of RAM, several GPU's, and a bunch of FPGA's. All hotswappable so my games, simulations, or recompiles of kernels aren't interrupted by mere hardware failures.

[52-6F-62]

Definitely good points, and a few of them were admittedly way over my head in terms of applied knowledge.

But it sounds like you're pointing to applied-need systems, like POS or IOT situations. I can see the usefulness there, completely.

I guess I meant more in the mainstream realm, replacing readily what consumers would opt to use.

I am going to have to read up on a number of the items you raised, thanks!

[nickpsecurity]

Good chunk of the list were in desktop or server roles. Good call on at least one or two being useful in embedded. Here's a UNIX alternatives list I made a while back that you might find interesting:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10957020

Idea was whether there were better architectures.

[mtkd]

when I said JS - this was exactly the myopic view I was referencing

all roads lead back to where it all started - that higher-level OS interaction cul-de-sac - it's a cul-de-sac

[52-6F-62]

I see what you're saying, and it certainly is a cul-de-sac...

but what if it is a surface layer built out of those languages and frameworks? Even if it's not optimized and technologically eloquent, it's already being rammed through now with libraries like Google's A-Frame.

Myopic maybe, but only from a select perspective. Those languages have been the most democratizing in CS history. They're the ones a lot of people seem to be the least intimidated by, at least at the outset.

I'm sure it will come back down to lower-level work because the higher level processes will soon require it. That said, I don't personally foresee some new, young group yet writing a viable alternative to Windows, macOS, Linux or any variants thereof. There's little point, and the battle would be a hard one to win. It's much easier to tame new ground in order to make one's place. That aspect shouldn't be underestimated in its influence.

[JdeBP]

> Those languages have been the most democratizing in CS history.

People who lived through the home computer revolution would probably suggest BASIC for that title.

[52-6F-62]

I'm too young to comment properly (sadly, only just). Though I'll admit that was the first language I learned in high school outside the Turing learning language.