I believe (or at least I hope) that the future of operating systems does not lie in fancier user
interfaces, but in making the computer more responsive.
Do you know that today's computers are really fast? I mean, those GHz processors are
incredibly fast, it is unbelievable what they are able to do in a second. But you
might not know it from just using a computer.
In my daily work I often receive very slow responses from both Windows and Linux
machines. I often have to wait seconds for things that should (and could) be instant. I mean
after the screen saver on my desktop machine locks the screen, the next user request invariably will be to unlock
it. The OS should know that. And it should sit there waiting for any sign that its
master wants to work again and then it should instantly present the password dialog.
Or what about those apps where I have to look for seconds at animated splash screens saying
that they load this or that module or plugin. Why can't the OS provide means for
loading pre-initialized applications (some folks might remember the undump utility).
There are possible performance improvements all over the place, which could be achieved
by using techniques like caching or using database technology or being able to
hint to the operating system which ressources might be needed next. Together
with maybe a little more RAM this could create a really reactive user experience.
I often wonder how you can spend so much money for creating software and come up with such
bad and slow design :-).
