Link: Browser as the new Operating System

Related to an earlier post of mine that the Browser is the platform that applications should be built for...except this article uses the term "Operating System". I disagree with the terminology - the Operating System will always be the layer (above the BIOS) that the computer uses to work with its hardware, and no 'Browser' can do that. But it is an interesting term, and relevant for the article since it is making the case that applications are being built on the browser, as they would otherwise atop the Operating System.

Link
Excerpt:

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.