[arch-general] A universal Operating System API - why don't we have it?

[RedShift]

Hi all


It dawned on my that lots of industries have standards and companies generally keep to them. For example slabs of aluminium have standard sizes, building materials have well defined specifications, or take electrical components: there's a huge list of standardized components. You can expect between 220 and 240 VAC from your wall socket, fuses have standard formats and ratings, 1 meter here is exactly the same as 1 meter in another country, etc... Even CD's, which have been around for decades by now, have always been created using the same format (albeit extended somewhat, over time, but a normal CD pressed now should still play in a CD player that's 20 years old).

It allows for a very competitive market where choices are made based on price, quality, availability, etc...

Why doesn't the computer business have something similar? Sure processors are interchangeable in a limited way, we use standardized RAM, standard interfaces for accessing our peripherals, etc... But not when it comes to software. Why don't we have one universal API that works on every operating system? Yes there is libc, the language C is defined "in some way", but I'm talking about stuff that would make applications 100% portable. Things like enumerating all hardware devices, configuring a network interface, drawing a window, ejecting the CD-ROM drive, getting notified about new hardware plugged in, etc... It's different on every operating system. You cannot write a driver for Linux and expect it to work on FreeBSD. You cannot write an application for windows and expect it to work on Linux. When you buy a piece of hardware you usually hope for the best that it'll work out-of-the-box including all "extra" features.

So why is that? Why hasn't someone stepped up and even try and create a universal operating system API? Is it because the computer business is still a "child" in some way, compared to other industries?


Just a thought.


Glenn