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Facebook Acquires Parakey's Web OS Platform

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the iface dept.

NaijaGuy writes "Facebook has purchased Parakey for an undisclosed sum. We have previously discussed how Facebook recently opened up development opportunities for third-party developers. With this acquisition some observers have noted that Facebook might be trying to become a Google alternative, by providing an application development platform based on Parakey's technology. Facebook's 'Web OS' has also been discussed, and the company has made headlines partly because of the fame of one of its founders. Blake Ross helped launch Firefox, and it was enthusiasm for helping less geeky users like his mom to thrive on the web that got him through the doors of Netscape at the age of 15. A recent interview charts how that same enthusiasm led him to start Parakey, 'a Web operating system that can do everything an OS can do.'"

5 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. ok now I *DID* RTFA by caffeinemessiah · · Score: 3, Interesting
    at least one of them. Why does /. insist on posting articles with tripe like this (particularly amusing snippets in bold):

    Imagine that in 2-5 years time Facebook has become the No. 1 destination on the web. Facebook as a Web OS is the leader in online storage, online applications, email, blogging and of course social networking. How people interact with Facebook has changed; Facebook OS has absorbed Facebook F8, all previous Facebook applications work under Facebook OS, but they work more like Windows does today; Facebook has become your desktop and not just an internet site. The Facebook Paint application substitutes Photoshop, Facebook Email is a superior offering to Outlook, Facebook Office (Facebook having acquired either Thinkfree or Zoho) provides the market leading word processing and spreadsheet platform.

    --
    An old-timer with old-timey ideas.
  2. CS320 by mrroot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "a Web operating system that can do everything an OS can do"
    I'm guessing you didn't make it to Operating Systems before you dropped out of Computer Science.

    --
    I Heart Sorting Networks
  3. No, not everything an OS can do... by blakeross · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This has been discussed ad nauseum, even in the last Slashdot article, but: no, Parakey does not do "everything an OS can do" from a technical perspective, which is the only perspective most people here care about. That should be obvious. The quote was in the context of average users--people like my mother--who are not thinking about concepts like memory management. The idea is that Parakey accomplishes the functions of an OS (and much more) from an *end-user's* perspective.

    I'm confident the truth won't stand in the way of another 200 posts on this topic :)

    1. Re:No, not everything an OS can do... by clang_jangle · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The idea is that Parakey accomplishes the functions of an OS (and much more) from an *end-user's* perspective


      Actually the phrase you seek is "software suite", not "OS".

      --
      Caveat Utilitor
  4. Re:Everything? by larry+bagina · · Score: 3, Interesting

    From wikipedia (warning: I may have edited this just minutes ago):

    The idea behind it is to make image, video, and writing transfer to the web easier. He explains that the current problem with transferring data to the web is that in order to move an image onto the web you first have to transfer pictures from your digital camera, then upload them to a place like Flickr.

    That sounds like an ActiveX-esque security shit storm waiting to happen.

    --
    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.