With lots of things being developed through web technologies, and many things being web-based so that it is cross-platform, will operating systems still be relevant?

We can differ philosophically by using Debian or Arch or Windows or Mac, but if nowadays applications are web-based or developed through something like Electron such that it can run on practically all modern operating systems. what is the relevance of operating systems galore?

Don’t get me wrong I love FOSS and Linux and stuff, but it seems that the paradigm right now is creating web applications, with many things being web-based.

Am I off, or is this something you also think about?

P.S. I’m a total noob when it comes to IT, so the question might be weirdly phrased.

  • @over_clox
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    41 year ago

    Still requires some sort of background software to render the pixels of the text, decode the video and audio, etc.

    Web apps don’t come with all that, they call on the operating system to do those things.

    • @mafbarOP
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      21 year ago

      Of course, but my thinking is sort of that for example, when it comes to Linux distros, there’s no longer any meaningful difference even between Ubuntu or Fedora or Arch for casual users; since applications now tend to be containerised or be web-based. Distro choice may not relevant afterwards.

      • kevinBLT
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        21 year ago

        Distro choice doesn’t actually matter in any regard other than convenience, you can make any distro into any other distro by simply changing packages and modifying configs, the kernel is what matters.

        Obligatory: containerisation is bloat, electron is bloat.

        • @mafbarOP
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          21 year ago

          the kernel is what matters

          Fundamentally, that’s true. Of course the average user isn’t going to think or probably even know what a kernel is, nor I’m unsure if they even have to.

          containerisation is bloat, electron is bloat

          I’m not a technical expert, but while containerisation is bloat, it’s modularity is a plus, I think. Conceptually I like it.