Michael Arrington on TechCrunch writes:

For most early adopters (and all Mac users), the browser is increasingly the only operating system that matters anyway. Windows isn’t really that relevant any more just because of the increasing utility of online applications like Google Docs, which competes with Microsoft Office. – Gartner Says Vista Will Collapse. And That’s Why The Yahoo Deal Must Happen

With the increasing popularity of widgets over the last few years, I honestly believed that the browser was at and end, it had hit a wall. There are even Firefox plug-ins that allow the browser to NOT act like a browser.

The problem is in the general thinking of the OS, as a platform for apps to run. By definition this is true. That’s all it is.

Why the browser is so popular is that it is a tangible interface to the internet. People got the “pamphlet” pitch back when the internet first entered the publics’ conscience.

It is going to take a young mind, someone who sees the OS as something completely different, to bring its next iteration. Not simply as a serving tray for apps.

I think it’s less “the OS is dead” and more that the OS needs to be re-thought. (Windows is ‘collapsing,’ Gartner analysts warn)