Tim O’Reilly offers a definition of the Internet operating system:
This is the crux of my argument about the internet operating system. We are once again approaching the point at which the Faustian bargain will be made: simply use our facilities, and the complexity will go away. And much as happened during the 1980s, there is more than one company making that promise. We’re entering a modern version of “the Great Game”, the rivalry to control the narrow passes to the promised future of computing. (John Battelle calls them “points of control”.) This rivalry is seen most acutely in mobile applications that rely on internet services as back-ends. This is a great and important article, an explanation of where we are right now as an industry. The two questions that I’m interested in trying to answer, or seeing other people try to answer, are: 1. What are the keys to preserving the freedom and openness of the Internet given the trends in the article? 2. How should people developing applications using the Internet operating system be investing their time right now?