What even is an OS now?

Περίληψη

Crazy as it sounds to say this, since it’s all anybody’s been able to talk about for over a year, but the impact of AI on computing hasn’t yet sunk in.

Today I’m parting company with Fly.io to work with Kurt on a new project. I’m getting that out of the way so you all know up front I’m talking my book.

When I was a little kid, a family friend sold us our first “computer” — scare quotes because I’m pretty sure it was a VTech Laser 200 clone, a chiclet keyboard Z80 that ran off cassette tapes and plugged into our TV. I was old enough to know what a computer was, and conceptually what it meant to program one, because I remember dreaming of all the dumb games I could make. Finally! We had a device that would allow me to make things like the “Hitchhiker’s Guide” text adventure I’d play at my dad’s office.

But it booted straight into BASIC. That’s all it did. I was, like, 8 years old. I wasn’t about to learn BASIC. What I learned instead: computers were not as awesome as I’d imagined....