The Browser Is The New Operating System
from the local-storage dept
A couple of weeks ago TechCrunch had a good write-up of the move toward open local storage APIs in web browsers. As websites have come to look more and more like applications rather than static pages, they've begun to bump up against the limits of what today's web browsers can do. Developers have responded by using a variety of proprietary plug-ins and workarounds to expand the browser's functionality. One example of this is local storage. There aren't a lot of good options for applications that want to store significant amounts of data client-side in a way that will continue to be available if the Internet connection goes away. Google has Google Gears, while Adobe has Flash. Each offers local storage, but neither is compatible with the other, nor are their APIs likely to be adopted by other browser vendors in the future.
Luckily, as part of the HTML 5 effort, it looks like the major browser vendors are moving toward a set of open APIs for local storage that will (theoretically, at least) enable developers to write an application targeting this functionality and have it work on any modern browser. It appears that the latest versions of Firefox largely already support the API, and support has been added to recent builds of WebKit, the foundation of Apple's Safari browser. The big laggard is Internet Explorer, which has some but not all of the functionality. But even IE users have the option of installing Google Gears, which has promised to add HTML 5-compliant local storage APIs. The broad support of these APIs by other browsers, along with the fear of giving the edge to its arch-rival Google, will put a lot of pressure on Microsoft to jump on the bandwagon.
What's really interesting about this is that browsers are starting to resemble operating systems in their own right. One of the most fundamental features of operating systems is to provide a consistent interface for data storage. OS developers call it a file system, rather than "local storage," but the concept is the same. And as websites come to increasingly resemble full-blown operating systems, I think browser vendors are increasingly going to have to solve the same kinds of problems that operating system vendors do.
For example, it has become increasingly common for my browser to slow to a crawl because one poorly-written, JavaScript-heavy website is sucking up all the CPU. Just as operating systems have preemptive multitasking to prevent one application from bringing the whole system to a crawl, browsers should have mechanisms to prevent one misbehaving website from bringing my browser grinding to a halt. Safari has an extremely primitive version of this - I'll sometimes get a dialog box informing me that a particular website's Javascript is creating problems and asking if I want to stop it - but there's a lot of room for improvement. The browser should automatically limit the amount of CPU one website can use when others are waiting. And I should be able to call up a "task manager" that shows me all the websites I've got open and gives their CPU and memory usage. When websites begin to resemble full-fledged applications, browsers are going to start behaving like full-fledged operating systems.
In a sense, this is the belated fulfillment of Netscape's "middleware" strategy to make the web browser the new operating system. As detailed in the Microsoft antitrust saga, Netscape's hope (and Microsoft's fear) was that the browser would supplant the operating system as the default platform for user applications. That's now starting to happen, although it didn't happen fast enough to save Netscape.
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It won't be long... by Buzz on Jun 16th, 2008 @ 3:45pm
It's only a matter of time until someone introduces the first true web OS.
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Re: The Browser Is The New Operating System by Anonymous Coward on Jun 16th, 2008 @ 3:58pm
no, it's not
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by jon on Jun 16th, 2008 @ 4:04pm
'And I should be able to call up a "task manager" that shows me all the websites I've got open and gives their CPU and memory usage.'
Asking for a task manager in a web browser is like asking for a saddle to ride a harley
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Re: by some old guy on Jun 16th, 2008 @ 4:17pm
and yet... harley riders call their seat a saddle...
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The Browser Is The New Operating System? um, no. by bob on Jun 16th, 2008 @ 4:42pm
I remember when the browser was the new operating system back in 1997. IE 4.0 introduced the F-11 key that caused the browser to take over the desktop. Netscape had its equivalent but I forget what it was. They also gave us "active desktop" that would let you make a web page your desktop. Citrix Net-PCs were the next big thing. Thin client was the wave of the future. Nobody will have to pay for expensive and bulky PC hardware ever again!
It would seem that everything old is new again.
People that call the browser the OS don't really know what an OS does. That's like saying "the car is the road" if it has treads instead of wheels.
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Nothing is the new anything by Thrip on Jun 16th, 2008 @ 4:46pm
I'm so tired of hearing this crap. An OS is an OS. A browser is a browser. To the extent that they do the same thing, you are just creating inefficiency.
It's very clear at this point that we need a cross-platform thick client. Maybe it will be AIR. Maybe Sun will finally figure out how to stop making Java so annoying to end users. But this attempt to force browsers into that role is asinine. First, because they're lousy at it: my computer can launch a pure-Java mail app with a much more complete and responsive interface than gmail in a fraction of the time it takes the gmail app to load. And the Java app is infinitely easier to write, test, and maintain.
When HTML 5 is the standard and every page on the web is riddled with JavaScript UI frameworks, embedded video, and inline SQL queries against local storage -- browsers still won't offer anything we don't already have with Java and Flash, and there will be nothing at all to fill the place browsers used to occupy: the thin client.
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Re: Nothing is the new anything by some old guy on Jun 16th, 2008 @ 4:57pm
my computer can launch a pure-Java mail app with a much more complete and responsive interface than gmail in a fraction of the time it takes the gmail app to load. And the Java app is infinitely easier to write, test, and maintain
HAHA! ya, right. I wonder what it's like living in your dreamworld! dear god, that must be a wild and crazy world!
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by jon on Jun 16th, 2008 @ 5:18pm
"When HTML 5 is the standard and every page on the web is riddled with JavaScript UI frameworks, embedded video, and inline SQL queries against local storage -- browsers still won't offer anything we don't already have with Java and Flash, and there will be nothing at all to fill the place browsers used to occupy: the thin client."
nobody's making you use javascript/video/etc, plain html will still work
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by Thrip on Jun 16th, 2008 @ 5:33pm
@jon
nobody's making you use javascript/video/etc, plain html will still work
Yes someone is: web developers. Up until a couple of years ago I often used a lean browser program for a lot of my browsing. Now I have to use a slow, memory-hogging behemoth because a huge proportion of web sites do require javascript and hardcore css support, even if all I want from them is text.
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