Why does everything want to become an operating system? First we had Firefox OS, and now Gnome OS is here.

The buzzword at the moment definitely seems to be "platform", and the Gnome team aren't happy just writing a bunch of libraries and programs sitting on top of a base system that they don't control.

More specifically, they're looking to have more control over the whole experience for Gnome users. Let's ask some more questions.

Q. But they already do that - they design all of the user interface bits 'n bobs.

A. Correct, but the bits that we see only make up a small part of the overall experience. Let's step back for a moment, and consider how things work in a typical Linux distribution.

rest here