In days gone by (and yes like many I remember them oh so well), the Personal Computer was the IBM machine based on 8080 technology and a DOS operating system, then along came Sir Clive Sinclair and there followed a raft of computers that changed home computing for ever.
One thing that set these machines apart from the IBM PC was that their OS loaded from an EPROM, you flicked a switch and in a couple of seconds you could be typing commands.
Today we have PC’s that run Microsoft based Operating Systems as the defacto standard of the industry. They take anything from 3 – 5 minutes to boot, they require reboots on a regular basis.
The OS is released full of potential exploits to make life easier for the software developers to get their products to market and installed without the need for the user to make technical changes to the OS configuration. Instead once these products are released and stable Microsoft come along with am update that closes the loopholes and we are grateful!
When Windows 2000 came out, the NT world cheered, then got upset, then SP1 came out and things got better from that day onwards.
XP was released and the die hards decided that 2K was better but eventually (after SP1) they accepted the OS and generally embraced it.
Vista promised so much with the fantastic looking Aero graphics and what happened? Dismal, disappointing dross! This time SP1 came out and hardly changed a thing in my opinion.
There are far too many versions of Vista, they are overly complicated, again Microsoft change the names of our well loved and well known utilities (why the hell change Add/Remove Programs to Program Features?), and basically unless you have a really good PC you can’t getthe benefits of Vista Ultimate.
I’m sure one or two of you are shaking your heads saying that you love Vista, well in that case try running Ultimate 64bit without 4Gb of memory. Yes it works, but opening a complex application can be like the days of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and those dodgy tape loads, it takes forever!
So, what’s the answer?
In truth I don’t know! BUT, I do thow the following:-
- Vista is too complicated for it’s own good
- There are too many versions of Vista
- Most business users don’t need half the functions
- Most home users don’t need the other half of the functions
- The physical size of the OS is far too large
- Technology has moved on and the price of memory has fallen
Is the time ripe for a return to the EPROM days? Could we run several versions of an OS off several EPROM’s with a choice of useage at boot (gaming, office, browsing etc)?
I know there are rumours that Microsoft are looking at new processor architecture to help with something like Micro OS along just those lines. If this becomes reality what will happen to the IT Support industry?
Personally I have no doubt that we will still have work to do, but the nature of that work will change. We may find ourselves upgrading EPROMS to get the latest versions out there, or we may just find ourselves fixing application errors.
Either way, those who embrace the technology will lead the way.