Internet OS
Encyclopedia
Internet operating system, or Internet OS, is a term used in the computer industry to refer to any type of operating system
designed to run all of its applications and services through an Internet
client, generally a web browser
. The advantages of such an OS would be that it would run on a thin client
, allowing cheaper, more easily manageable computer systems; it would require all applications to be designed on cross-platform
, open standards; and would not tie a user's applications, documents, and preferences to a single computer, but rather place them on the cloud
. The Internet OS has also been promoted as the perfect type of platform for software as a service
.
The term Internet operating system has been used distinctly from web operating system
, which instead refers to distributed operating systems hosted through Internet services themselves.
started heating up between Microsoft
and Netscape
.
In response to the limited capabilities of HTML
at the time, Microsoft began developing an online content authoring platform that would be based on distributed OLE
(Object Linking and Embedding) which it codenamed Blackbird
. Using OLE, applications put on the web would contain their own processing logic, so would act similar to applications in a typical desktop environment
. Immediately, there were concerns that this would tie the web to proprietary
Microsoft technology that wouldn't be guaranteed to run across different systems.
As a challenge, Marc Andreessen
of Netscape announced a set of new products that would help transform their browser into what he called an "Internet OS" that would provide the tools and programming interfaces for a new generation of Internet-based applications. The so-called "Internet OS" would still run on top of Windows — being based around Netscape Navigator — but he dismissed desktop operating systems like Windows as simply "bag[s] of drivers", reiterating that the goal would be to "turn Windows into a mundane collection of not entirely debugged device drivers".
Andreesson explained that the newest versions of Navigator were not just web browsers, but suites of Internet applications, including programs for mail, FTP, news, and more, and would come with viewers for a variety of document types, like Adobe Acrobat
, Apple QuickTime, and Sun Java applets, which would give it programming interfaces and publishing tools for developers. Netscape also would continue to sell its server software, and Java applets would run cross-platform on both its clients and its servers, and as a scripting language in the form of JavaScript
. They would also provide facilities for backend transaction processing, elaborating the client/server model with navigating clients and application servers and database servers. He pointed out — because of the broad capabilities that all of this gave their browser — the only difference technically between Netscape Navigator and a traditional operating system is that Navigator didn't include device drivers.
Technical problems with Blackbird, the growth of the web, and what they saw as competitive statements from Netscape, soon led Microsoft to rethink their strategy and they began to position OLE as a primary tool within Netscape's proposed ecosystem. OLE would now be embeddable in web pages using an ActiveX
plug-in, and would be easily integrated on the server side using ASP
(Active Server Pages) development.
, Oracle
, and IBM
. These companies were informally referred to in the industry press as the "Gang of Four". Novell
later joined the alliance, leading it to be called the "Gang of Five".
In May 1997, the group published a position paper which discussed integration of software component models within CORBA
— a commonly used architecture allowing computer applications from different vendors running on different systems to work together over networks. From this, they then issued several RFPs (Request for Proposals) to the Object Management Group
(OMG), the standards body responsible for managing CORBA, meant to help integrate different aspects of Java. The proposals included support for JavaBeans
— the serialized, component architecture of Java — and for JavaScript
. In what was called the "Java-tization of CORBA", the group was positioning Java to be a distributed object architecture, similar to what Microsoft had intended with OLE in Blackbird. OLE would only exist as a second-class technology that would interface through CORBA using JavaBeans.
The group also promoted the idea of a JavaOS
— a minimal, Java-based operating system — which would in turn run Netscape's web browser, and through the browser run JavaBeans components. This would be the front for a new ecosystem based on open standards; first, HTML
in the webbrowser; and second, Java
, which they hoped would become widely adopted through CORBA. JavaOS would be hosted on a Network Computer
or NC, a concept long advocated by Oracle. The NC would be a thin client
designed only for Internet use, leaving it to access applications and documents stored entirely online. Oracle saw its role as providing tools for the server layer, where network-hosted applications would be provided through the Network Application Server, which in turn would make use of both Oracle7 relationship database management system and the Oracle Web Server. Oracle also outlined what was referred to as the Network Computing Architecture (NCA), which would separate presenation, application and data access logic into Java applets or NCA cartridges.
Microsoft and Intel in response to this challenge put forward a standard for a competing model called the NetPC
, a diskless PC that would be primarily adapted to web browser use and would run a simplified version of Windows 95
, codenamed Pegasus. Later down the road, this idea evolved into to the Netbook
. Microsoft publicly criticized the idea of an Internet OS, and instead argued that the traditional desktop OS should be Internet-enabled, the beginning of the idea for Active Platform
, an Internet strategy that culminated later in the release of Windows 98
. This strategy, which involved tightly bundling Internet Explorer
in Windows, became the center of a United States anti-trust suit
against Microsoft. All of the Gang of Five — Netscape, Sun, IBM, Oracle, and Novell — were involved in lobbying for anti-trust action against Microsoft.
By 1998, the Java alliance started to fall apart. Oracle continued developing server-side Java databases but had given up the idea of the network computer and Netscape had given up on their Java browser efforts, instead aiming to position themselves as an Internet portal. Pressure from investors was given the blame.
revived the idea of the Internet OS in 2009 with development of ChromeOS, a Linux
-based operating system designed to work exclusively with AJAX
-based web applications. The operating system was designed to look and operate like the Chrome web browser
and be sold on laptops developed with partners, called Chromebook
s. They also promoted their suite of web applications, Google Docs as an alternative to traditional desktop software such as Microsoft Office
.
Google has tried to address standard criticisms of the Internet OS concept with its development projects. Google Native Client
allows a browser to run Intel x86 native code in a sandbox
, so that more complex programs could run that more fully take advantage of a system's hardware. Google Gears was also created to allow offline access of online applications, although this is being deprecated in favor of Web Storage, a model in the process of standardization by the World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C).
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
designed to run all of its applications and services through an Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
client, generally a web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
. The advantages of such an OS would be that it would run on a thin client
Thin client
A thin client is a computer or a computer program which depends heavily on some other computer to fulfill its traditional computational roles. This stands in contrast to the traditional fat client, a computer designed to take on these roles by itself...
, allowing cheaper, more easily manageable computer systems; it would require all applications to be designed on cross-platform
Cross-platform
In computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...
, open standards; and would not tie a user's applications, documents, and preferences to a single computer, but rather place them on the cloud
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
. The Internet OS has also been promoted as the perfect type of platform for software as a service
Software as a Service
Software as a service , sometimes referred to as "on-demand software," is a software delivery model in which software and its associated data are hosted centrally and are typically accessed by users using a thin client, normally using a web browser over the Internet.SaaS has become a common...
.
The term Internet operating system has been used distinctly from web operating system
Web operating system
In metacomputing, WebOS and Web operating system are terms that describe network services for Internet scale distributed computing, as in the WebOS Project at UC Berkeley, and the WOS Project...
, which instead refers to distributed operating systems hosted through Internet services themselves.
History
Talk of an Internet OS began to surface in 1995 as the browser warBrowser wars
Browser wars is a metaphorical term that refers to competitions for dominance in usage share in the web browser marketplace. The term is often used to denote two specific rivalries: the competition that saw Microsoft's Internet Explorer replace Netscape's Navigator as the dominant browser during...
started heating up between Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
and Netscape
Netscape
Netscape Communications is a US computer services company, best known for Netscape Navigator, its web browser. When it was an independent company, its headquarters were in Mountain View, California...
.
In response to the limited capabilities of HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
at the time, Microsoft began developing an online content authoring platform that would be based on distributed OLE
Object Linking and Embedding
Object Linking and Embedding is a technology developed by Microsoft that allows embedding and linking to documents and other objects. For developers, it brought OLE Control eXtension , a way to develop and use custom user interface elements...
(Object Linking and Embedding) which it codenamed Blackbird
Blackbird (online platform)
Blackbird was the codename for an online content authoring platform developed by Microsoft in the mid-90s based on the concept of distributed OLE and meant as an alternative to HTML...
. Using OLE, applications put on the web would contain their own processing logic, so would act similar to applications in a typical desktop environment
Desktop environment
In graphical computing, a desktop environment commonly refers to a style of graphical user interface derived from the desktop metaphor that is seen on most modern personal computers. These GUIs help the user in easily accessing, configuring, and modifying many important and frequently accessed...
. Immediately, there were concerns that this would tie the web to proprietary
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
Microsoft technology that wouldn't be guaranteed to run across different systems.
As a challenge, Marc Andreessen
Marc Andreessen
Marc Andreessen is an American entrepreneur, investor, software engineer, and multi-millionaire best known as co-author of Mosaic, the first widely-used web browser, and co-founder of Netscape Communications Corporation. He founded and later sold the software company Opsware to Hewlett-Packard...
of Netscape announced a set of new products that would help transform their browser into what he called an "Internet OS" that would provide the tools and programming interfaces for a new generation of Internet-based applications. The so-called "Internet OS" would still run on top of Windows — being based around Netscape Navigator — but he dismissed desktop operating systems like Windows as simply "bag[s] of drivers", reiterating that the goal would be to "turn Windows into a mundane collection of not entirely debugged device drivers".
Andreesson explained that the newest versions of Navigator were not just web browsers, but suites of Internet applications, including programs for mail, FTP, news, and more, and would come with viewers for a variety of document types, like Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat is a family of application software developed by Adobe Systems to view, create, manipulate, print and manage files in Portable Document Format . All members of the family, except Adobe Reader , are commercial software, while the latter is available as freeware and can be downloaded...
, Apple QuickTime, and Sun Java applets, which would give it programming interfaces and publishing tools for developers. Netscape also would continue to sell its server software, and Java applets would run cross-platform on both its clients and its servers, and as a scripting language in the form of JavaScript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
. They would also provide facilities for backend transaction processing, elaborating the client/server model with navigating clients and application servers and database servers. He pointed out — because of the broad capabilities that all of this gave their browser — the only difference technically between Netscape Navigator and a traditional operating system is that Navigator didn't include device drivers.
Technical problems with Blackbird, the growth of the web, and what they saw as competitive statements from Netscape, soon led Microsoft to rethink their strategy and they began to position OLE as a primary tool within Netscape's proposed ecosystem. OLE would now be embeddable in web pages using an ActiveX
ActiveX
ActiveX is a framework for defining reusable software components in a programming language-independent way. Software applications can then be composed from one or more of these components in order to provide their functionality....
plug-in, and would be easily integrated on the server side using ASP
Active Server Pages
Active Server Pages , also known as Classic ASP or ASP Classic, was Microsoft's first server-side script engine for dynamically-generated Web pages. Initially released as an add-on to Internet Information Services via the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack Active Server Pages (ASP), also known as Classic...
(Active Server Pages) development.
The "Gang of Five" and the NC
Opposition in the industry to Microsoft began to grow, as did the concept of an "Internet OS", and this lead to the formation of an alliance around developing Java as an alternative to Windows — the chief partners being Netscape, SunSun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
, Oracle
Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...
, and IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
. These companies were informally referred to in the industry press as the "Gang of Four". Novell
Novell
Novell, Inc. is a multinational software and services company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group. It specializes in network operating systems, such as Novell NetWare; systems management solutions, such as Novell ZENworks; and collaboration solutions, such as Novell Groupwise...
later joined the alliance, leading it to be called the "Gang of Five".
In May 1997, the group published a position paper which discussed integration of software component models within CORBA
Çorba
Chorba , ciorbă , shurpa , shorpo , or sorpa is one of various kinds of soup or stew found in national cuisines across Middle East...
— a commonly used architecture allowing computer applications from different vendors running on different systems to work together over networks. From this, they then issued several RFPs (Request for Proposals) to the Object Management Group
Object Management Group
Object Management Group is a consortium, originally aimed at setting standards for distributed object-oriented systems, and is now focused on modeling and model-based standards.- Overview :...
(OMG), the standards body responsible for managing CORBA, meant to help integrate different aspects of Java. The proposals included support for JavaBeans
JavaBeans
JavaBeans are reusable software components for Java. Practically, they are classes written in the Java programming language conforming to a particular convention. They are used to encapsulate many objects into a single object , so that they can be passed around as a single bean object instead of as...
— the serialized, component architecture of Java — and for JavaScript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
. In what was called the "Java-tization of CORBA", the group was positioning Java to be a distributed object architecture, similar to what Microsoft had intended with OLE in Blackbird. OLE would only exist as a second-class technology that would interface through CORBA using JavaBeans.
The group also promoted the idea of a JavaOS
JavaOS
JavaOS is an operating system with a Java virtual machine as a fundamental component. It was jointly developed by Sun Microsystems and IBM. Unlike Windows, Mac OS, Unix or Unix-like systems which are primarily written in the C programming language, JavaOS is primarily written in Java.As of 2006,...
— a minimal, Java-based operating system — which would in turn run Netscape's web browser, and through the browser run JavaBeans components. This would be the front for a new ecosystem based on open standards; first, HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
in the webbrowser; and second, Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
, which they hoped would become widely adopted through CORBA. JavaOS would be hosted on a Network Computer
Network computer
Network Computer is a trademark of Oracle Corporation that was used, from approximately 1996 to 2000, to market a range of diskless desktop computer devices. The devices were designed and manufactured by an alliance, which included Sun Microsystems, IBM, and others...
or NC, a concept long advocated by Oracle. The NC would be a thin client
Thin client
A thin client is a computer or a computer program which depends heavily on some other computer to fulfill its traditional computational roles. This stands in contrast to the traditional fat client, a computer designed to take on these roles by itself...
designed only for Internet use, leaving it to access applications and documents stored entirely online. Oracle saw its role as providing tools for the server layer, where network-hosted applications would be provided through the Network Application Server, which in turn would make use of both Oracle7 relationship database management system and the Oracle Web Server. Oracle also outlined what was referred to as the Network Computing Architecture (NCA), which would separate presenation, application and data access logic into Java applets or NCA cartridges.
Microsoft and Intel in response to this challenge put forward a standard for a competing model called the NetPC
NetPC
NetPC is a standard for diskless PCs. It was a competitor to the Network computer standard, launched by Oracle Corporation in the mid-1990s....
, a diskless PC that would be primarily adapted to web browser use and would run a simplified version of Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
, codenamed Pegasus. Later down the road, this idea evolved into to the Netbook
Netbook
Netbooks are a category of small, lightweight, legacy-free, and inexpensive laptop computers.At their inception in late 2007 as smaller notebooks optimized for low weight and low cost — netbooks omitted certain features , featured smaller screens and keyboards, and offered reduced computing...
. Microsoft publicly criticized the idea of an Internet OS, and instead argued that the traditional desktop OS should be Internet-enabled, the beginning of the idea for Active Platform
Active Platform
The Active Platform was the name of a development platform released by Microsoft in the 90s for creating web applications and delivering them to a PC desktop environment...
, an Internet strategy that culminated later in the release of Windows 98
Windows 98
Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid...
. This strategy, which involved tightly bundling Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer
Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...
in Windows, became the center of a United States anti-trust suit
United States v. Microsoft
United States v. Microsoft was a set of civil actions filed against Microsoft Corporation pursuant to the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 Section 1 and 2 on May 8, 1998 by the United States Department of Justice and 20 U.S. states. Joel I. Klein was the lead prosecutor...
against Microsoft. All of the Gang of Five — Netscape, Sun, IBM, Oracle, and Novell — were involved in lobbying for anti-trust action against Microsoft.
By 1998, the Java alliance started to fall apart. Oracle continued developing server-side Java databases but had given up the idea of the network computer and Netscape had given up on their Java browser efforts, instead aiming to position themselves as an Internet portal. Pressure from investors was given the blame.
Google and ChromeOS
GoogleGoogle
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
revived the idea of the Internet OS in 2009 with development of ChromeOS, a Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
-based operating system designed to work exclusively with AJAX
Ajax
- Mythology :* Ajax , son of Telamon, ruler of Salamis and a hero in the Trojan War, also known as "Ajax the Great"* Ajax the Lesser, son of Oileus, ruler of Locris and the leader of the Locrian contingent during the Trojan War.- People :...
-based web applications. The operating system was designed to look and operate like the Chrome web browser
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google that uses the WebKit layout engine. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2, 2008, and the public stable release was on December 11, 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or...
and be sold on laptops developed with partners, called Chromebook
Chromebook
A Chromebook is a personal computer running Google Chrome OS. The devices comprise a distinct class of personal computer falling between a pure cloud client and traditional laptop.The first devices for sale, by Acer Inc...
s. They also promoted their suite of web applications, Google Docs as an alternative to traditional desktop software such as Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
.
Google has tried to address standard criticisms of the Internet OS concept with its development projects. Google Native Client
Google Native Client
Google Native Client is a sandboxing technology for running a subset of Intel x86 or ARM native code using software-based fault isolation...
allows a browser to run Intel x86 native code in a sandbox
Sandbox (computer security)
In computer security, a sandbox is a security mechanism for separating running programs. It is often used to execute untested code, or untrusted programs from unverified third-parties, suppliers, untrusted users and untrusted websites....
, so that more complex programs could run that more fully take advantage of a system's hardware. Google Gears was also created to allow offline access of online applications, although this is being deprecated in favor of Web Storage, a model in the process of standardization by the World Wide Web Consortium
World Wide Web Consortium
The World Wide Web Consortium is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web .Founded and headed by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations which maintain full-time staff for the purpose of working together in the development of standards for the...
(W3C).
See also
- Blackbird (online platform)Blackbird (online platform)Blackbird was the codename for an online content authoring platform developed by Microsoft in the mid-90s based on the concept of distributed OLE and meant as an alternative to HTML...
- Network ComputerNetwork computerNetwork Computer is a trademark of Oracle Corporation that was used, from approximately 1996 to 2000, to market a range of diskless desktop computer devices. The devices were designed and manufactured by an alliance, which included Sun Microsystems, IBM, and others...
- Google Chrome OSGoogle Chrome OSGoogle Chrome OS is a Linux-based operating system designed by Google to work exclusively with web applications. Google announced the operating system on July 7, 2009 and made it an open source project, called Chromium OS, that November....
- Active PlatformActive PlatformThe Active Platform was the name of a development platform released by Microsoft in the 90s for creating web applications and delivering them to a PC desktop environment...
- Cloud computingCloud computingCloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
- Thin clientThin clientA thin client is a computer or a computer program which depends heavily on some other computer to fulfill its traditional computational roles. This stands in contrast to the traditional fat client, a computer designed to take on these roles by itself...