The Next-Generation OS

Imagine your desktop screen was a large multitouch touchscreen, and the computer driving it was powered by iOS or Android, optimized for the desktop. You have no mouse, but you have a hardware keyboard. For things like Photoshop, you have a pen that you can use on the screen for more precise work.

Also, for the sake of argument, assume that all your favorite applications were ported over to a desktop version of iOS/Android.

Now, here’s the question: are there any things that you use your computer for that you could not use this imaginary iOS/Android desktop for?

I don’t expect the answer would be zero, but I’ll bet the answer isn’t a lot.

I mainly use my computer to play games, check email/rss/Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr, do IM chat, write HTML, create images & print layouts in Adobe CS5, browse the web, and listen to music. Given that somebody ported Adobe Creative Suite to iOS and made a good code editor for it too, the only hurdle for me would be the lack of a decent filesystem. I could replace my computer with this imaginary iOS machine.

Granted, for someone like me, there wouldn’t be many obvious advantages. But the intuitive UI and raw speed of iOS are things that people love. It’s something that Windows and even OSX don’t have, and you have to wonder if iOS on the desktop isn’t such a bad idea.