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

[Damien Churchill]

2009/12/18 RedShift <redshift at pandora.be>:
> 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
>

Isn't this what POSIX was, albeit quite old now, but still a standard?