Mac OS vs Windows vs Chrome OS. Who cares what OS you run? I care about the applications, and the SDKs used to build them

Everyone is so caught up in operating system wars, Chrome OS taking on Windows, becoming OS agnostic. I think this is the wrong way to think about all this.

It's true, I don't care what OS I run. I don't interact with the OS directly, I interact with the applications I'm using. An "OS" is nothing but a stack of frameworks, built on top of each other. So what's going to win this "war" is not the best OS, but the best SDK which leads to the best applications.

The web has come *a long* way in the past 5 years in closing the gap between desktop and web applications. Software on the web, primary that from Google, has really shown us that a web browser really can power some amazing products.

Yet even today, the best applications generally live on the desktop. High performance games are only on the desktop. Large applications like Final Cut Pro and Photoshop won't run on the web. Why do power users still use Outlook/Entourage/Thunderbird? After so much progress on the web, why are companies making native Twitter clients for the desktop and mobile devices? Why are there over 50,000 native iPhone apps, when when you could always build a web app?

It's because of the SDK. The browser has gained popularity as a development tool because it's cross platform, and it has the support of companies like Google. But as a developer myself, I still see web development as having the weakest tool set of any I have used. You can't beat XCode for Cocoa and Cocoa Touch. Or Visual Studio for developing Windows apps (I hear).

There are some major advances coming in the web OS world. In particular, 280 North is doing some amazing things with their Cappuccino development framework, and Atlas IDE.

For now, native Mac and iPhone applications are the products I enjoy most. Native SDKs and IDEs are my development tools of choice. I'm always going to build tools I want, using the SDKs I love. And for now, that's still Mac OS X.

In fact, that's why I built Posterous around email. The idea of building web software to do things that work so well on the desktop already, just didn't make any sense to me.

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Aug 18, 2009

Pedro Assuncao said...

I agree with your judgement, but I would argue that it's still about the OS in the sense that if it does not perform it's low-level tasks well enough, the "user experience" of the applications built on top of the SDK will be bad, and that will make people not use them.

So, in the end, the OS matters quite a bit, I would say, even if under the hood.

Michael Castellon said...

Many more of my applications are becoming Web based. In fact, if I lose an Internet connection, I hardly know what to do.

I depend on Google for e-mail, which as I increasingly depend on Posterous to publish also becomes my blogging hub. I depend on Picasa and Flickr for photo editing and sharing, and Google Reader for reading syndicated content.

Having said that, the backend infrastructure that runs the browser is critically important, especially when you look at security and stability. For that reason, I prefer to use OSX and Linux.

Mike Langford said...

I'm not a developer myself but I disagree that it is the web's OS or its SDK that is resposible for the continued deployment of power apps to the desktop. There are three other reasons which are much more critical:

1. Bandwidth speeds - While you and I are blessed to live in broadband land, the rest of the country and world for that matter aren't as lucky. Even with broadband, its variation of speed makes apps like Final Cut Pro on the web less than practical.

2. Internet Connection - Do you remember when the iPhone first came out?There were no native 3rd party apps, only web apps. How frustrating was it to be stuck in a dead zone, or in my case my building, without a signal? I was hating on my iBrick pretty hard.

3. Existing Business Models, Ecosystems and Legacy Systems - There are billions spent on software, deployment and support each year. That ship isn't easily turned. Many users can't switch to web apps even if they wanted to. Think of my former employer Fidelity Investments, it has thousands of employees on Outlook. As a regulated company it must store all email for years. Then there's the IT guys who have little incentive to put themselves on the unemployment line.

Sachin Agarwal said...

@Pedro completely agree. There are a lot of layers building up to the SDK, and each needs to be top notch. People are depending on web browsers more and more, but they are still built on top of OS X.

@Michael you only named "connected" apps. Obviously if you don't have internet, you can't check your email or post photos online. But what about non connected apps? iPhoto for photo organization, etc.

Yes, most people now use gmail on the web (I don't). But email is basically the simplest application out there. It's just rows and columns of *text* with organization methods. And that's *barely* good enough to be web based now.

@Sachin, I love the fact that you wrote "they are still built on top of *OS X*". As a macbook pro owner I both understand and support ;)

David Martinez said...

Yeah, I must agree that an OS is still pretty important. As others have stated it, it still defines the experience before you accomplish things online. Being a long time Mac user, my experience as of late has been in Windows XP for my freelance work for the last 7 years (my bread and butter), but I look forward to going back to leopard full time for my clients, particularly since it will make apps like Final Cut Pro available to me!

@Mike totally agree. bandwidth and connectivity do prevent lots of apps from moving to the web. But i'd say that's just the first limitation. Even with the bandwidth, the web doesn't have the SDK or performance to deal with something as large or complex as FCP.

Bradley Farless said...

Well said. Nothing beats a native desktop application.

Aug 23, 2009

David said...

My order of priority is
1. Safe from hack
2. Fast
3. Bookmarking is easy

I have Safari and Firefox loaded.

I prefer Safari.

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Mac OS vs Windows vs Chrome OS. Who cares what OS you run? I care about the applications, and the SDKs used to build them

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