And I think this is why hardware vendors could come out with their own spin on an operating system.
We didn't use to have a standard for sharing information. If you wanted to share a file, you had to have the exact same hardware and software. That is what led us to the local minima that is PCs running DOS/Windows.
Now, however, we have a well accepted standard. If you can have a good TCP/IP stack and run a browser, you're golden. With just these two things you can be productive on any operating system.
So now, the fact that the OS is the last thing that you consider, might just free manufacturers to come up with their own designs.
That does however leave one crucial thing out, which might just kill Gruber's argument: games.
We didn't use to have a standard for sharing information. If you wanted to share a file, you had to have the exact same hardware and software. That is what led us to the local minima that is PCs running DOS/Windows.
Now, however, we have a well accepted standard. If you can have a good TCP/IP stack and run a browser, you're golden. With just these two things you can be productive on any operating system.
So now, the fact that the OS is the last thing that you consider, might just free manufacturers to come up with their own designs.
That does however leave one crucial thing out, which might just kill Gruber's argument: games.