Hybrid Operating System

Very few alternative PC operating systems work correctly on Intel's latest CPU's, let alone USB3, NVMe, and other modern technologies. The point of a Hybrid Operating System is to allow the user to remain within their familiar operating system environment, while making use of these newer technologies.

And one of the primary goals of a Hybrid Operating System is to make it work well for normal users rather than just programmers. That means automating features that would otherwise require too many steps, and hiding features that would otherwise get them in trouble.

A Hybrid Operating System should also have a well described design emphasis. In theory there are three possible choices:

• a design catering to the user that does not want to learn anything new
• a design focused on security
• a design that maximizes features

Hybridization makes possible special features enhancing any one of these design emphasis. However, they are generally in competition with each other, making it very important to give the user clear master controls that they can set and leave.

A good Hybrid Operating System will allow the user to choose the design emphasis, or at least to know which of those three design emphasis are available. Without any such design emphasis a normal (non-programmer) user will inadvertently trip up their own objectives (they do not have sufficient technical knowledge to avoid the features contrary to their desired model).

This is why a Hybrid Operating System has value over merely installing the tools and using them. A good Hybrid Operating System will help normal users to keep the intended emphasis intact.

Operating systems can be hybridized by adding what's called "glue code". To get two operating systems to work together is easy, and yet to optimally address normal user activity along a given design emphasis requires considerably more effort. The challenge is to keep all that effort within the glue code, and to not confuse normal users.

Here at SilverBulletPC.com, we have produced a Unified-PC, which was reengineered towards real-world consumer objectives. We ship this computer with your choice of PC operating system. And in the case of any outdated or alternative operating system we ship our best hybridized version. We make use of Ubuntu for this purpose, because it is free, far more secure than Windows, and it is fully modernized with even better performance than Windows on Intel's cutting edge CPU's. If you choose our Hybrid Operating System during checkout, you'll pay a mere fraction the licensing of newer Windows, and you'll get the best of both worlds combined.

It comes shipped with the security-centric design emphasis pre configured. You can then change it through a master control to either of the other two design emphasis, or any of several variations inbetween.

We start you out with the security-centric design emphasis, because this one can evolve into either of the other two, but not the other way around. So, it makes sense to start there, to see if it works for you or not, and to then evolve into the one that works best for you.

Transitioning Out Of Windows?

If you felt all along that you should be using a Linux system and not Windows, and just didn't have the time to learn Linux, or were afraid you couldn't get your software to run on Linux, then our Hybrid Operating System could help to smooth out your transition, allowing you to take little bite sized steps from your old operating system towards one of the very best implementations of Linux: Ubuntu. With both systems running on your Unified-PC it makes it quite easy to continue to use software that you are using now while trying one thing at a time directly from the Ubuntu desktop, until ultimately you're making use of just Ubuntu.

Why Did We Choose Ubuntu For Our Hybrid Operating System?

To cater to any of the above three design biases, a Hybrid Operating System must use a modern operating system as its host. Today there are really only two to choose from: Windows 10 (or higher), or Linux 5.16 (or higher). These have stayed current with very important technological changes that have taken place in recent years. Choosing one of these as the hybrid host then makes possible modernizing the other operating system. We chose Ubuntu 22.10, which gives us the most Windows-like distribution of Linux, which has as its kernel Linux 5.19, which provides the most optimal compatibility available to the latest 12th and 13th generation Intel Core CPU's. And the best free support group of any operating system on the planet.

Besides the fact it is current with modern technologies, the architecture behind Ubuntu automatically sheds off most security and stability problems. If you take a top-view of all Windows problems (given just normal users), and then a top-view of all Ubuntu problems (given just normal users), you'll see about a 95% improvement over Windows. Just think of all that expense (in both time and dollars) to constantly deal with security issues, performance issues, system crash or corruption issues. Now imagine reducing all that to a mere 5% by simply going with a better design.

As far as Linux systems are concerned, most installations generally require a programmer, because the commands are more cryptic looking, and installation instructions often require use of these commands. In contrast, Ubuntu gives you an actual Windows-like desktop. You can still use it as a programmer would, by typing all these cryptic looking commands from the terminal prompt, but you can also use it as a normal (non-programmer) user, from Ubuntu's desktop. The particular version of Ubuntu that we go with makes use of a very popular desktop technology called "GNOME". This desktop is quite similar to the Windows desktop, with only minor differences that are easy to learn.

Ubuntu is open source, which is absolutely necessary if you wish to trust that the technology isn't doing things that you don't want it to do. And Ubuntu is sufficiently popular that experts continually go over its code to make sure it can be trusted.

The Ubuntu brand is owned by Canonical, a company dedicated to advancing a strong version of Linux within an open source community. They make their money selling paid professional support, while a very large free support forum supports everyone else (it's called "FOSS", for Free Open Source Software/support).

We did not have to change any Ubuntu code to make our Hybrid Operating System. All of our glue code is on the outside of Ubuntu. From a licensing standpoint you become an Ubuntu user (bound by Canonical's licensing agreement), a VirtualBox user (bound by Oracle's licensing agreement), a Hybrid OS user (bound by our licensing agreement, which concerns only our tools and the glue code), and a user of the target operating system (bound by its licensing agreement). Each is fully independent and easily separated at any time, despite the fact that our glue code gets the others to work together in a manner that caters towards a specific design emphasis. So, as an example, if some day in the future you decide to become a full time Ubuntu user, then you can uninstall everything else, leaving just Ubuntu, and nothing will change with its license.

Ubuntu is a great answer to all sorts of concerns that you might be having regarding hidden CPU activity.

Try pulling up a browser and loading up 20 tabs with websites. Let it sit there an hour or two. You'll notice some CPU activity, but not much. If you do the same thing in Windows you'll see all kinds of CPU activity. Have you ever wondered what they are actually doing? You should be concerned about that difference.

Here are some of our concerns: It affects the heat output of the PC. Privacy & security. Stability. And available performance for things that matter.

Are there any downsides? Ubuntu's approach to security and stability includes professionally pre installing literally all drivers, so that Ubuntu is ready for your devices up front. This is one of the keys to their superior design eliminating 95% of the problems, and it generally makes life easier for everyone. However, it also means that you can't just buy any device and plug it in. You have to first see if it is on an approved list for your version of Ubuntu. There are work arounds but those get back to special commands and the possibility of reduced stability. So, it is best to purchase only approved devices (of which there are thousands to choose from).