Have you ever heard of a computer without an operating system? Could such a thing even exist? This type of computer would be very hard to hack into, and would also be virus free. In addition, it would rarely crash. Think of all the times you’ve been working all day on your computer and suddenly the lights go out. Unless you have a backup system in place, you’ll lose all of your work.
You may not know about it, but a computer without an operating system has already been invented. How could this be possible? Don’t computers need operating systems in order to work? Apparently not, because two former Motorola engineers invented this type of computer just recently. These two men became so frustrated by hackers that they decided to switch servers. Instead of using an operating system, these two ingenious engineers created a chip that contained a kernel of 4K (four kilobytes) of code. They also formed a company together in order to start selling this new technology.
Essentially, the two engineers formed the same idea used for medical devices and computer games boxes. The biggest advantage of computer game hardware is that it rarely breaks down. Young teenagers can play video games for hours on end without any worry.
But why is an operating system-less computer better? The answer is fairly simple. Viruses can infect computers by modifying the operating system instructions in order to “kill” the system. The Motorola engineers soon realized the main advantage of a computer without an operating system was that it is immune to computer viruses because it doesn’t contain any instructions.
Although the new computer is basically virus-free, it also comes at a premium price, which can be a disadvantage to those that can’t afford it.