24th
Web 2.0 "OS" - A Quick Look
Reading this post at TechCrunch got me interested in looking at the Web OS’ out there. Here is a quick look at some of them.
A stable OS with an interface that resembles a regular OS. I tried the browser and notepad and they both worked pretty well. A context-based right click menu is also available with options for refresh, settings, help etc. The site calls itself a widget engine providing the ability to add applications developed as widgets.
EyeOS has an interface that looks like a cross between a Mac and Linux; the wallpaper appears to be from a Mac but the windows look a bit like the KDE. The site/OS is Flash based. I tried the apps in there starting with Eye Terra, which was a mapping application. It provided a choice of software for use including Google Earth, Microsoft Aerial etc and worked pretty well. Then I clicked on Eye Board, which was some kind of a chat room that kept getting refreshed. I left a brief message but could not close the app or move focus to the other window. There is a list of running apps shown in the screen below but I could not bring up the Eye apps window even after clicking on it. After numerous attempts, I closed, reopened and logged in again. There are quite a few Office apps including a word processor, a spreadsheet etc. The spreadsheet looked pretty impressive. Overall, its an impressive effort and with a few issues on stability sorted out it should be good for prime-time.
Jooce has a great interface - very jazzy. On opening, it asks for options for setting up your IM; AOL, ICQ, Yahoo and MSN are shown but no Google Talk. There are options to upload files and create folders. Contacts can also be stored. The interface appears to be Flash-based as is the case with most other “Web OS’”. I could not find any other apps on this site/OS. In my opinion, this is a PIM (Personal Information Manager) rather than an OS. It seems to focus on 80% of the tasks that are performed by people when online.
DesktopTwo is the closest to a real OS with a familiar menu and all commonly used apps in place - EMail reader, Calendar, MP3 player, IM, file storage, Notepad etc. It also comes with the Open Office suite and has a nifty toolbar at the top that displays the latest deals on the web sorted by categories - a nice idea since many people go searching for coupons and discounts. To attract users, Desktoptwo offers space for a blog and a personal site under its domain. In my opinion, this site/OS is the best of the lot.
Cloudo is a soon to be launched Web OS. I watched their guided tour and signed up for the private alpha. The guided tour showed some cool features such as changing the look and feel of the OS to resemble Windows,Mac, linux etc. Cloudo will probably depend on third-party developers for developing apps for it. I will get in take a look when the invite comes in.
