Analysis: Nobody runs an operating system just to run an operating system -- they run them to get stuff done, and they get most of that stuff done in applications.
In the end, operating systems are merely a means to an end. Nobody runs Windows to run Windows, or OS X to run OS X, or Linux to run Linux. They run them to get stuff done, and they get most of that stuff done in applications.
I've been pondering that fact as I've been processing the news about Windows 8, which Microsoft showed in public for the first time this week at the D9 conference. It's got both a radically new touch-centric interface and the one I already am thinking of as "Windows Classic"-a duality that brings to mind the days when most people ran both DOS apps and Windows 3.x ones.
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