GUI OSes

[wizard@direct.ca (Astro)]

On 13 May 1999 07:25:26 GMT, supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) wrote:

>I've always thought GS/OS was a spectacular operating system.  It
>is so modular and logical.  Components can be installed and removed
>as individual files.  Windows 95, although pretty on the surface, is
>a nightmare underneath.  Even MacOS is not as streamlined as
>GS/OS, especially in the way it allocates memory for fonts, etc.,
>and the way extensions and file systems are handled.

Recently I got transferred at work to a different department, where
there is a sorta old PowerMac used for general office grind stuff. In
the spirit of the Mac, it is shared by many co-workers, including
myself. It may be cranky [screen colours fritz out and the occasional
mysterious data glitch] but it's a real focus of attention and I get
the feeling we all love it in our own way.

Anyways, until I had the chance to use this PowerMac and learn OS8, I
had never known any other GUI OS but the various generations of MS
Windows. I use Win98 now [even as I type].

Now, I know a lot of people, especially serious Mac users, are very
critical of Windows as an OS, but I don't mind it so much. In fact,
with my knowledge of how to optimize it, I find it very configurable
and more or less trouble-free. But this is a little beside the point.

...Then I bought an Apple IIGS and I recently got the GUI to load.
Through working with GS/OS and the Mac as a support unit [for file
transfer and processing] I find that my conceptualization of GUI has
optimized... I find myself applying Apple OS technique to Windows
which responds much in the same way that OS does. Things I never
utilized in Windows, like drag-box icon selection and the desktop as a
manipulation platform, I find I am now using regularly, and it
increases my efficiency. 

Neither Windows nor Mac OS is what I would conceptualize as a
"perfect" contemporary GUI-OS [I think it would be a fusion of the
best features of each] but GS/OS is about as straightforward as it
gets. It's the most natural extension of the human in a computer that
I have encountered yet, 8-bit, 16-bit or 32-bit.
 
Hey when do get to see OSes evolve into 64-bit? Sooner or later the
GUI paradigm is going to shift. What comes next??? Immersive
virtual-reality experiences? Invisible voice-controlled platforms?
Thought-controlled platforms? Mind/Machine merge? 

Everywhere you look, it's all Science...

~~~~~~~~~~
~~~Astro~~~ 
~~~~~~~~~~

Vancouver, BC
http://persweb.direct.ca/wizard/arcana/default.htm