Slashdot Mirror
You OS Web Based Operating System
Juergen writes "You OS comes from the MIT Labs and contains an email client, Chat Function, RSS Reader, and Text Editor.
YouOS is a web operating system that lets you run diverse applications within a web browser. Small applications like sticky notes or clocks. Large applications like word processing, mp3 players, and instant messaging. Even better, it's very easy to tweak an existing application or write your own.
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"Your web browser text-based web browser"
Viva la redundancy!
Kidding, I know you os is it's name. I still don't see the point in it until there's an OS independant browser. Still, it's a step forward.
Yeah. Would you choose a neurosurgeon who pokes around people's brains in his spare time? I wouldn't.
While the idea is great, I will not bite in this case because my ISP places a limit on how much traffic can be allowed through my network interface with my current plan. Even though I can "upgrade", the costs are just prohibitive. Sorry, I will not bite.
This is pretty similar to EyeOS ( http://eyeos.org/ ), which runs on any web server and lets you use apps (IM, RSS, web browser, games, etc) in it, change the background etc. I've got this running on my web server, and if nothing else it's great when I want to check the /. RSS while away from home :P
I think the point is that they can be used from quite much any modern enough PC, even PCs you can't really go and install an X server onto. Think libraries, certain computer labs, maybe friends' places etc.
YouOS has been around for a while, and it's part of a growing trend of online desktops (I refuse to refer to them as "Online OSes", because they're simply a desktop page that launches programs, an alternative to Explorer at best).
.de ?)
:)
If you're interested in this area, check out also:
FlyaKiteOSX
the 30Boxes Webtop
EyeOS
Computadora (in Spanish, even though
Goowy (it's in Flash though)
And of course, because this is Slashdot, I couldn't go without mentionning that Google is probably preparing their own, since their recent focus on releasing equivalents of desktop applications online (Notes, Excel, Word, Calendar, Picasa, etc)
I wouldn't say "vulnerabilites" per se.
This is about the same as someone who runs Linux inside a Linux Xen VM inside a Linux VMware VM......
The question is, what does make sense?
Not entirely. The YouOS browser uses iframes, so it's still Firefox, not YouOS, that's powering it. So it's more like running an app inside Linux that the VMware VM told it to run. If it really was nested, the speed would decrease exponentially (especially for a WebOS; JavaScript isn't all that fast).
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This is a great idea in the same way that Citrix, Terminal Server, and X in general is a good idea: you need next to nothing to run big, complex, perhaps very expensive software. This site doesn't have any of that, trying instead to replicate a typical desktop, but the idea is a great one and one I"m sure we'll see a lot more in the future. While X is defacto free but can't be run through a browser, Citrix and Termnial Server (both of which do have browser versions), cost a lot of money in liceneses, etc.
Yes, technically it isn't an OS and it's performance isn't all that great, but they're not exactly promising anything; this makes for a good proof of conceptm and I wouldn't be surprised if somebody like SalesForce takes the idea and runs with it; I think we'll probably see *real* web-based desktops within ten years (where the apps are full enough featured and fast) and don't need activex or java.
Most people have seen this coming for quite some time, but let's have a look at what this really seems to be (I cannot access it at the moment, due to to many users being logged in).
Basically, AJAX and these "Operating Systems" have arisen from the browsers capability nudging towards that of a remote desktop client, or so it seems. The browser is still made to deliver HTML, remember that.
What if someone made a much more powerfull client-side application that could do what the Javascript/DOM model does, but add support for harware accelerated graphics, and API's actually designed for this purpose? I guess FireFox's Canvas is a start, but its not in any way like FF or IE is designed to do this kind of stuff. People have simply discovered it's possible by accident, and started building these OSes. I love remote X-sessions and Remote Desktop towards my workstation, it's much richer than what your browser can deliver, but of course to slow for large scale applications, and to much of the processing happens server-side.
It would be a little bit like an X-Windows client I guess, only that more of the processing happens client-side. Apps would be downloaded in text/XML, and Javascript or similar could be used to add dynamics. Possibly a code-behind type thing would be betterm but I really have no clue (:
So, in essence, the server becomes a application dispenser, and a data source. Then the "player", optimized for the client's architetcure, would run the app.
Best,
. Knut