HACKER Q&A
📣 rafaelmdec

The Next Big OS Leap


After witnessing what is being said about the AI Botlers (like OpenClaw/Moltbot/Clawdbot), I believe UIs will start melting big time.

The point, click and type era is over.

Voice will take over as the primary interface.

UIs will be adaptive and enabled on demand.

There will be an AI agent layer on every single PC out there.

Since privacy will be an issue, "Shazam-like" filters will inhibit uncleared capture of voice.

Makes sense?


  👤 speakingmoistly Accepted Answer ✓
Does anyone actually ask for this? What problem is it solving other than following the hype?

One of the main things I've gotten out of the whole OpenClaw/Moltbot/Clawdbot situation is that the general public has a dangerously low grasp on information security. There's usefulness to that type of assistant, but I have yet to see a compelling, general consumer take on it.


👤 nunobrito
Or maybe the next big OS leap is decentralization along with data sovereignity. Each person being their own server without so many dependencies to clouds and huge processing/database power inside their own pockets.

👤 codingdave
Nope, that sounds like a small iteration on UX, not a revolution, so it is not worth the massive cultural change to make it happen. After all, despite what tech folk think, most people really dislike change.

So we'll probably stick with what we've got until AI is truly empowered to change things, which we are probably a decade away from. At that point, it is far more likely that AI will be taking in full audio, video, and data from your environment, and will know you well enough that the mundane tasks will just happen, without need for any UX at all. Maybe a small device for you to tweak things and control non-standard tasks.

But again, that is a decade off, if not two. We're currently headed into the first downturn of the AI-driven world, when the hype dies, people really spell out the problems, platforms realize that most people don't want generative AI, and all of this quiets down, taking a back burner for 7-10 years while the research advances to move beyond today's problems and evolves into what people might actually want.


👤 al2o3cr

    Since privacy will be an issue, "Shazam-like" filters will inhibit uncleared capture of voice.
So now the operating system will decide which recordings are "cleared" and which aren't? Fuck outta here with that nonsense

👤 mikewarot
The next big OS leap is a capabilities based security with a microkernel. The old model of assuming you wanted to share your authority with everything you run is unsustainable. It should have been a thing at least 20 years ago.

👤 LargoLasskhyfv
Nope, because we already could have had that with VR/AR glasses, and while there are some (even impressive) options now, they aren't mainstream. Neither are the 'apps', nor the content interoperable, exchangable.

Furthermore I see nothing wrong with the desktop metaphor, it's just that we mostly only had a miserable magnifying glass, giving only a small viewport into a crammed childs toy, instead of real large high-resolution screens as can be had now, or sensible virtual desktops for more common sizes. To be expanded by "Metisse", an early 2.5D extension for FVWM, and later "User Interface Faćades". Maybe with some Zoomable UI sprinkled on top, like in https://eaglemode.sourceforge.net/ or whatever the clandestine weirdos from https://arcan-fe.com/ may come up with. (IF. EVER.)


👤 adrianwaj
The next leap, I think will be when internet service providers are bought out by the hardware makers. Or vice versa? Everything tech will come in a bundle - and it will be global/multi-language and come with content. One ring to rule them all type stuff.

Then again, with the Agentic Economy, who knows, there could be a currency-based consolidation. Not sure what that all means for the OS. Maybe look at the payment and finance systems first and work backwards. You do some work for someone, how are they going to pay you and how are you going to spend the money?