How To Free Yourself From An Operating System

In the early days of home computing, computers were proprietary almost to a fault. You absolutely could not run something for one computer on another. Something programmed for a DEC Rainbow would not run on a Commodore 64 would not run on an Apple II, etc. In fact you couldn’t even load anything for differing computers. If you wrote something as simple as a text file on a floppy disk with one type of computer, only other computers of that type could read it.

This type of proprietary computing lasted for a very long time. The first break from this was the BBS era whereas you could finally trade files between different types of computers. After that came the internet and now we enjoy files that can be shared between any type of computer.

It’s now desirable to use computing in such a way where the operating system simply doesn’t matter. As long as the computer can connect to the internet and can use a widely supported web browser, that’s really all you need.

If you want to achieve the goal of not having to depend on a particular operating system, this involves a few simple steps.

Step 1. Use media that is universally recognized no matter what computer you plug it into.

The media of choice here is a USB stick, a.k.a. a pen/thumb drive. All modern operating systems recognize USB.

Why don’t I recommend optical media? It’s for the fact that still to this day there are instances where a disc burned on one computer won’t read in another. The most common occurrence of this is with Macintosh optical drives, known as SuperDrives. A disc burned with a SuperDrive will at times not read in a PC with Windows or Linux. It has never been discovered as to why this happens, yet it does from time to time.

USB on the other hand never has problems reading from computer to computer, and that’s why I always recommend that type of media first.

Step 2. Use software that is available for as many operating systems as possible.

The two best examples of this are Firefox and OpenOffice. Both these titles run on anything – including their plugins/add-ons.

If at all possible, try not to use software that is proprietary to a specific operating system. Sometimes this is difficult to do. But if you can, go for it.

Step 3. Try to be as web-based as possible.

The more you “live inside the browser”, the better off you are.

Email: Very easy to accomplish. You have Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, Gmail and so on.

Documents and Spreadsheets: Also easy. There’s Google Docs, ThinkFree, and in early 2010 there WILL BE a “light” version of Microsoft Office for Windows Live users. Does this mean Word and Excel will finally get to the web browser – for free? Yes it will. Watch for it in 2010.

Messaging: Again, also easy. AIM Express, Yahoo Web Messenger, MSN (Windows Live) is available inside Hotmail, Meebo, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, the list goes on.

Contact list: Somewhat easy because it does require a certain level of commitment. The commitment comes in that you have to stay dedicated with whatever web  service you go with. Example: If all your contacts are in Yahoo, stay in Yahoo.

Step 4. Use file formats that are widely supported.

Examples of this are PDF, ODT (OpenOffice), MP3 and so on. Basically anything that can be read, understood and seen/heard by any OS.

Challenge yourself!

See if you can “live” on the web without the need for local applications. I’m not suggesting you simply uninstall all your stuff (that would be ridiculous), what I am saying is to set a personal goal and see if it works out for you.

For example, if you use an email client, try it on the web instead for a week. Remember, you can import all your mail into the Windows Live Mail client then move over to a Hotmail account so you don’t lose anything. And if you don’t like it you can always switch back.

If you want something even easier, if you use instant messaging, try the web-based version of whatever messenger you use. All your contacts are already synced so there’s nothing to lose.

For anything that you can do on the web, just remember at that point you’ve just eliminated something that requires any specific operating system. This brings you one step closer to freeing yourself from a specific OS.

On a final note, it’s true that you cannot do everything on the web. But if you can get most of it out there, it truly will not matter what OS you use.

This also gives you a huge advantage if you’re considering switching to Linux from Windows. If you have that goal in mind, the only thing you will need in Linux is Firefox – which it already has.