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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.
"
From the title it looked like this was a bad "in soviet Russia" joke...
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
It's a bunch of applications. Yes, if you're Joe Sixpack, then that's what defines an OS, but it's not a real OS. I'm not sure what it's scheduling characteristics are, it probably doesn't have peripherals (or can you plugin your USB stick or camera?), I'm not sure it has swapping, etc...
And is there an SDK around? If so, it'd sound like the ideal computing slave. SETI here goes... (ok, maybe it has resource quotas, which would actually make it an interesting project...)
There should be a link to some of these pages, instead of no content linking to a practically blank page.
Yeah. Would you choose a neurosurgeon who pokes around people's brains in his spare time? I wouldn't.
Upon seeing this, I immediately wondered whether the OS's web browser could run itself. I'm posting this comment from inside YouBrowser, which is running on YouOS inside of another YouBrowser inside of YouOS in Firefox. So looks like it's possible. I wonder how many levels you could go down...
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
Ever had that message with your local workstation?
.NET, very tough in webapps or server-pushing information to the client, requires long-lasting GET requests filtered by many firewalls)
This is just another playground for the next gen. of Dot-Com-Companies, nothing serious.
a.) web-applications rely on high-speed-always-on internet connections (I'll be in an airplane this afternoon, no text processing for me then?)
b.) Will always offer less features and a bad UI compared to classical desktop applications, because restricted by web browser capablilites
c.) are currently much harder to code than classical desktop apps (e.g. editable drop down boxes anyone? Easy thing in NetBeans/VS
d.) collaborative features are easily added to classical desktop apps
Conclusion: less possibilities, harder to code (you'll always be tricking, hacking to get a nice effect), bad UI (restricted by browsers)
The only competition to desktop apps I do currently see is MS XAML.
Bye!
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)
When did we start confusing a desktop "shell" application and a handfull of basic functions with an "Operating System"?
An operating system is the code that provides the operating environment in which these programs run; not the programs themselves; a layer between the hardware and the application programs that provides a uniform environment, manages resources, arbitrates contentions, provides synchronization primatives such as semaphores, schedules CPU utilization, etc. Its "users" are programs, not people; its user interfaces are APIs; not shells. Shells and other application programs provide what we traditionally think of as USER interfaces for interacting with humans.
Along with the operating system one often finds a suite of shell programs (textual or GUI), basic applications and administrative programs to provide a user environment. These may be included in the operating system package, and are helpful or even essential in making the operating system usable but are not themselves the operating system or part of it.
This important distinction seems to be lost on the likes of Microsoft. Perhaps as a result, this disturbing misconception seems to be spreading throughout the community.
If the "You OS" involves somewhere an operating system, it lives on their server infrastructure and the users never see it.
A better web based OS could be made by allowing people to ssh into a computer running emacs. Then you'd have a full fledged OS, instead of a limited one like this. Plus, if you added vim, you would have a good text editor.
Stupidity is like nuclear power, it can be used for good or evil. And you don't want to get any on you.
Could someone please explain to me why this is a great idea? Besides the novelty. What place does YouOS have in a world where people (well, geeks, actually) debate endlessly about which desktop is the fastest/full featured/whatever? Certainly YouOS would fail to meet most anyone's criteria for a generally useful desktop.
Come on people, this "web based OS" idea is stupid. Admit it. And it is not just because of fact that "Operating System" is a great misnomer in this case. From their FAQ:
"Need to send or receive email or text/instant messages? We're working on providing full communication APIs."
If that gets you excited, then I have a network stack written in BASIC to sell you. ANd it runs in a browser! Amazing, huh? Forget the fact that your current operating system already comes with a perfectly good network stack and running mine would be completely redundant and pointless.
-matthew
"THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death