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.

  • UnfortunateShort
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    81 year ago

    The part of the OS that you see is among the less important ones, hence headless machines are a thing and there are, to this day, people insisting to use terminals even in situations where it’s stupid.

    Most of the e.g. Windows hate does not come from their UI, but from horrible user experiences, technical faults or it violating one’s privacy. It’s true, most people don’t really care about their OS as long as it O-s, but there are reasons to care and people who will.

    • @mafbarOP
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      21 year ago

      I get that for servers, you’ll run it headless. I forgot to mention that I’m referring to casual desktop users.

      insisting to use terminals even in situations where it’s stupid

      I mean I’m a novice at using the terminal, but what are situations where it’s stupid to use it? I can think of many situations where having GUIs would objectively be better or necessary, like using specifically graphical software like video editing, but can you share with me the situations where it’s stupid to use the terminal?

      but there are reasons to care and people who will

      I agree with you, that’s why I stick with Linux (or GNU/Linux if you prefer). I’m talking about years into the future, where our paradigm of building software is using web applications, rather than traditional native applications. SaaS stuff. I don’t know if OS choice will still be “relevant”.

    • @joel_feila
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      21 year ago

      noob question, what’s headless?

      • @ozymandias117
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        41 year ago

        A computer without a screen. Most of the time a server is “headless” and you need to ssh to it rather than use it like your desktop