When many become one, or one becomes many?

2015 is set to be the year when 2 major operating systems blur the lines between devices and aim for systems convergence.

Both Canonical the makers of the Ubuntu OS and Microsoft the creators of the Windows OS are looking by the end of this year to be providing a single code based operating system across multiple device form factors..

So cutting aside the marketing speak, what does this mean for you as a user?

In simple terms both vendors are looking to provide the same operating system on their mobile phone platforms as they currently do on the Desktop/Laptop version of their products and moving forward any other new platform which comes up..

So why does this help me you may ask, and essentially from a users standpoint this particular nugget of information really means very little, from a developers point of view this however means essentially the underlying code for a program on the Windows or Ubuntu desktop should work seamlessly on any Microsoft or Canonical mobile device as well. Less coding, simpler platform support blah blah blah..

Once the new Operating systems are released however, there is a feature both Canonical and Microsoft are pushing hugely, and that's the converging of the Desktop Operating system across both platforms.

This from a users perspective IS interesting, as it means that if you plug a monitor into a Windows Mobile Device OR an Ubuntu phone, you will see not the touch version of the desktop, but the Desktop version of the desktop.

That's right, finally your mobile phone can become your PC. No more lugging a laptop round, everything you need will be there, in the palm of your hand..

Canonical were pushing this a few years back with a demo of an android phone, which when put into a cradle would provide the user with full Ubuntu desktop and data would cross converge as well, so contacts on the phone were in the mail client, calls coming into the phone would be notified as with other notifications on the desktop.

The thought of the mobile phone even a few years ago providing a full user desktop experience was a big statement, however i'm sure at the time even the most powerful phone processors at the time  would have struggled with providing a full fluid desktop experience.  the seed however was planted, and like many things in the tech space, seeing, touching and feeling made all the difference.

Fast forward to 2015 however, and our mobile devices are positively bursting with power, we as a userbase are more mobile savvy as well, happy with Windows XP/7 not being the only OS we know we use Android, IOS, ChromeOS, we are not so tied into this concept of Windows is a computer.. We manage huge chunks of our life while on the go with our mobile devices as well. Mobile devices provide us freedom, and its a freedom we like, however don't quite allow us to do everything on that small screen.

From a consumer perspective, out of the blocks, this technology is unlikely to make that much difference, the line between desktop and mobile is wide enough that other than a handful of people, most will initially pass this by..

From a business perspective the possibility of running a mobile device which can also provide a full desktop experience is huge, both in cost savings, and in enabling employees, the number of times i've heard staff of companies complain because their ultrabook or Macbook  is just too heavy and causing back problems (yes, you know who you are). Having one device, which can be popped into a docking station at home or in the office and work as you'd work with a laptop is a major leap forward.

There are however a few other things which would help this idea move forward and gain greater acceptance.

Standardised Connectivity

The use of HDMI only connections on Ultrabooks threw up a rather interesting problem. The VGA cable was king everywhere for so long when the Sales guy or O level exec turned up to give a presentation at a clients office there was an quiet moment when everyone round the table realised that as thin and beautiful as the laptop was, there was no VGA socket to plug into the clients projector to give that presentation.

Form over function, and for Mobile/Desktop convergence to work we need to sort this out, and wireless isn't the answer right now. Sure there are solid reliable Wireless Display technologies, however sit in a room of Sales guys trying to get their laptop on a projector and you realise very quickly that what should be the simplest of things, well, isn't. a Simple cable much like the USB-C conector which connects both ways in the initial run is the simplest way to get ANY of these new devices connected.

The other tendency of the tech industry is dongles, adapters and bits that get lost because it can't agree on a single cross compatible system. Apple Power supplies for phones, USB chargers, ports which look like HDMI but are not.. While having the fastest, most efficient port may be great, if i need a ￡50 dongle to connect to anything (new Macbook's) that will get lost.

So the industry needs to quickly decide on a connectivity platform for monitors/docks and stick to it. Then it needs to get WiDi, Miranda or whatever Wireless projection technology we pick, to be as uniform, and easy to setup as possible..

Make the Docks cheap.

Once the connector is standardised, don't use the dock as a method of bumping up the margin, do the opposite, get EVERY far eastern manufacturer knocking these things out at pennies to the pound, make them cheap, simple, standardised so much so if i open a packet of cornflakes one of these things falls out..

Licence well

Microsoft specifically had a tendency to have about 15 different versions of its software, the desktop needs to be a simple, standards, does everything version of Windows 10..

You get this right, and you start to produce the next wave of IT, as hardware gets better, phones get pico projectors built in, battery improves, gestures and input methods become more widely adopted this technology has huge possibilities.

To get there though, both companies need to get it right now, and this means some cross vendor, cross platform standardisation, make it simple to use, easy to use, and people will use it. There are so many examples of great technology out there which have failed because the vendor built it in a walled garden..

Canonicals convergence plan goes a bit further than just providing a desktop on their phones, they have been fine tuning Unity, their Desktop over the last few years to get to a point where no matter what you display Ubuntu on much like those webpages which just adapt to Mobile, Tablet or Desktop they will automatically adapt at an OS level, this means not only is the code base the same on the mobile, the developer can if they wish just let the OS rescale their app. I'm not sure how well this works in reality, time will tell, however it should make designing apps easier

What about Apple you may ask?

Well Apple run OSX already on the iPhone, jail break your device and run a terminal on it, and the core of the desktop OS is already running on the iPhone, Apple have slowly been merging the look and feel of the desktop and mobile OS over the years, taking and migrating features from each. they seem to be taking a different path here, however time will tell.

There are also challenges for Canonical, while they have put the gauntlet down, knowing they need to be up in the respective grill of Microsoft from early on, the codbase do apply all this convergence requires an awful lot of work on a display framework many don't like. Mark Shuttleworth is a man of vision however, and has declared this something Ubuntu will supply this year..

This is a another example of a technology area which if done right WILL change business and consumer IT, however if done the normal way will cause confusion, won't every really work properly and will show that even the greatest ideas can fall by the wayside..