What will free us from the DLL hell and make the computer simple again?
The IT industry bloomed through a tacit partnership between Microsoft®, Intel®, hardware manufacturers, software vendors, and IT staff. The Internet, globalization, and new technologies have since broken this alliance.
The Network is the first thing that jumped ship with the emergence of the Internet. Software subsequently followed with Open Source Software, SaaS and cloud computing. Then came Data with cloud storage* and hardware with mobile computing.
In this new world, networking, hardware, storage and “compute” are commodities. Each tends to be more reliable, safer, less expensive, simpler to use, and easier to maintain than traditional on-premises alternatives.
No stone is left unturned by this shift. Even resource-hog programs like CAD can be had in the cloud.
In this new world, the heavy lifting has been transferred to the server side where the value is created.
All that is needed on the user side is a software client** or a mobile device to channel the value downstream.
Mobile devices run “containerized” programs called apps. Device and apps can be updated without any risk of negatively impacting each other (i.e.: the dependency or DLL hell).
Additionally, as against ordinary browsers and web pages, mobile devices and apps can retain some of their functionalities when they are cut-off from the Internet. Some can run on any platforms: PWA's.
It is as if the cloud - which makes extensive use of "containerization" - was remaking the personal computer in its image.
The hardware now built by Apple®, Microsoft® and Google® is mobile and built for the cloud. The Mac® and iPad Pro are becoming interchangeable (most Apple products now run on ARM-based CPU's). Chrome OS® has absorbed Android®, and Microsoft® has powerful PCs running on ARM chips.
User expectations have changed and work is changing as well.
Now is the time to streamline.
* Google Drive®, Dropbox®, iCloud®, OneDrive®…
** Browser, Citrix client or Remote Desktop client…