I know what I want in computing devices, and it’s not available. Anywhere. Nobody makes it. But everybody wants it. Not just me.
But talking about a bunch of specific and whatnot is just boring, and analogies and comparisons are much easier. So… I want…
Apple Style
Yes. As much as I utter loathe Apple and its many obsequious, obnoxious, rude fanboys, I want that style and polish. I like nice things, and Apple packages up their stuff in a very fine way.
Microsoft Platform Brilliance – The CLI
If you’ve developed for Apple platforms and Microsoft platforms, you know bloody well just how insanely miserable developing for Apple can be. Objective-C doesn’t hold a candle to C# or .NET. While there are some nice things in Objective-C, the constant barrage of pain makes it something to be avoided at almost any cost.
The entire concept behind the CLI and CLS is brilliant. The language that you use shouldn’t matter. Developing software should be more about concepts and ideas than platforms. Microsoft has THE answer with .NET and Novell and Miguel have the proper response with Mono.
I want a computing environment that’s easy to develop for. I want .NET/Mono/MonoTouch/MonoDroid… to improve and become…
True Cross Platform
More than just token efforts and messy GUI kits, I want software and platforms and goodness that truly work. Right now there are no really good cross platform kits. I blame this entire on the lack of good GUI tool kits. No matter what direction you go, there are just too many drawbacks for every GUI kit out there. Considering that for many kinds of software, GUI code is 75% or more of the code base, you’d think that somebody would have a good GUI kit. But nope. Not even a decent abstraction layer to sit on top of multiple kits.
I want to buy software that I can run on all my computers and all my devices.
Transparency Like Linux Openness
I want computing platforms that are transparent. I don’t care too much if they are GPL or BSD or whatever, but I just want transparency. I wouldn’t mind licensing that gives you access to source code, but no redistribution rights.
Sun & Solaris Reliability
Sun is such a well-named company and Solaris a well-name product. They’re reliable in the same way that the sun will rise tomorrow. It’s going to happen. You can’t stop it.That’s what I want. I don’t want to worry about crappy hardware drivers causing a BSOD. I like zones.
Upgradeable Hardware
I’m sick of devices and computers that you can’t upgrade, or that make upgrading a nightmare. I should be able to swap out pieces without worrying about software and platform issues. I shouldn’t have to buy a new phone to improve the camera. I shouldn’t have to buy a new tablet to add in mobile 3G.
Actual Simplicity
Apple is very far from easy to use. They’re no different than any Unix system for ease of use. But that’s what I want. I want the command line to be an option, but never the only option. I like GUIs. Why should I type when I can click?
Portable Operating Systems
I want to copy my OS to new hardware and have it work. That shouldn’t be that hard. I’ve heard about it for Mac systems, but I want it for other systems too. I want to be able to upgrade my operating system hard drive to an SSD with no issues.
I know… I’m dreaming… We live in a consumer market economy and none of that would ever happen because it benefits consumers and not companies.
But I can still dream.
