Simplify Unix and dominate the world

Today I began musing on the place of Unix within the computing world.  When I first began working in IT it was clear Unix would be a minority operating system for bigger more powerful systems.  A few years latter I began to use a product called Knopix a Unix variant and in the Mid 90's first encountered Linux, but these were command line programs difficult to install and use.  That is difficult if you were not pretty technically competent.

Linux and the other "free" Unixs have developed immeasurably since those days.  Ubuntu is really easy to deploy and use, but even so they remain fairly tightly focused on the technology savvy users list and it takes patience to learn to do all that you would wish to achieve.  The Unix desktop is clearly not going to replace the PC anytime soon or anytime ever, and yet it now pretty much dominates the computing marketplace.

I don't think this would have been foreseen but both IOS and Android have Unix at their core and overall far more computing is now done on these platforms than is done on PC platforms.  Suddenly the world has turned on its head and this has happened because first Apple and then Google realised these OSs had the potential, if you shielded the user from the complexity.  Shielding the user from complexity should be the first thing we do in the IT world because we are about enabling their ability to work but before the iPhone people just missed this obvious point.  Cloud computing plays to this too and the whole thing begins to assemble into a working way for the future.

Fighting complexity should be the first thought of an IT professional especially if they are architects or solutions designers.  Simple systems will result in better usability, smoother more easily managed services and a reduction in cost.  Think about this next time you review a solution, just ask if you think your Mum or your Grandmum could work it.  If she could you may be on to a winner.