Slashdot Mirror
Web OS, ajaxWindows Launched
BigRedFed writes "Michael Robertson, of mp3.com fame, Linspire.com fame (or infamy depending on your view point) and more recently, ajax13.com has released another interesting piece of web software. ajaxWindows they are calling it and it's an almost full fledged web based OS that you can use to transport around your documents and mp3 collection to any device with an internet connection and a full web-browser."
I think I can smell the servers burning from here...
I stole this sig from a more creative user.
Zero comments and the site is already reporting 404 error, makes you wonder how scalable it is...
Looks like the OS already crashed.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
No problem with AjaxWindows. I don't see a lawsuit coming at all! (If Lindows causes a lawsuit, then AjaxWindows (combining the power of TWO trademarked names) should solve the problem!)
Which is precisely what Robertson wants - Microsoft ended up paying Lindows $20 million because they were about to lose their clearly generic "Windows" trademark.
They'll pull out the checkbook and pay him off again, or ignore it and hope it goes away on its own. The last thing they want is for this to go to court again.
So... um... where's the interrupt dispatcher at? Come to think of it, what about the IO handler or CPU scheduler?
My web-based OS has crashed with an error "404 not found" and since the screen is not blue, I don't know how I should approach this! Can you please reboot the internet for me?
:-)
Thanks in advance!
yeah, the screen usually turns blue first.
Accessing my mp3s and documents over the web has been a dream up to now.
That's funny, I have no trouble at all accessing your documents...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I think it would be better to describe it as a "web desktop" and not a "web OS". There are plenty of "desktops" available on the web.
Web OS, now THAT is a great oxymoron.
He got slashdotted and now makes it seem like they planed the outage.
"Thank you for visiting ajaxwindows.com
ajaxWindows and the Ajax13 web site are temporarily down for planned
maintenance. We expect to be back up by 2:30pm, PDT on 9/10/07
Thanks for your interest, please visit our site again, soon."
string sig = llGetSig("dimentox"); llSay(0,sig);
Yeah, another "Web OS"! Now with more marketing!
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
Oh, ya think?
Damn, I love this guy. Who else would do something like this? Bear in mind, this is the guy whom Microsoft sued for using the name Lindows, and ends up getting paid $20 million. Oh, and the RIAA? While others end up paying the record labels thousands for petty downloading, Michael Robertson founds MP3.com, commercializes file sharing, and gets paid hundreds of millions and then goes on to take that money to start Lindows, which, of course, lays the foundation for another pay day. And all of it using open source software.
So when Michael Robertson says that he is ready, I interpret this to mean that he is getting ready for another pay day at Microsoft's expense. LOL, party at Michael's house!
Gates: You got your Javascript in my Windows!
Web2.0: You got your Windows in my Javascript!
Your USB stick is easier to use and faster. But behold! My block of swiss cheese has a stronger security model!
returned '1'
Yeah, wait til I slap a XSS bug on yer ass! Or what about the unpatched vulns?
I'M IN UR OS, STEALIN' UR WEBZ!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
So I get a computer, then I load a OS, then I need a Web Browser, and I need to get a Internet Connection, THEN I can connect to a Web Service that provides me with ANOTHER desktop so that I can store stuff. Wow, compared to a $30 dollar thumb drive, that IS convenient.
If "shit" = $20 million, I'd like some shit, too.
I'm sitting at a Sun Ultra 40 running Windows XP 64-bit edition. 4 CPU cores. 8GB RAM. NVIDIA QuadroFX 3450 graphics. I'm on a gigabit connection to a major internet link (major financial news and data company). Even so, ajaxWindows recreates that, sticky, gummy, nasty feeling of running X-Windows when the machine isn't really powerful enough and dragging solid windows around is still a reckless waste of horsepower.
The early 90s called, they want their SPARCstation 5s back.
This sucks worse than most similar sites I've looked at.
The server running slowly showed up some serious cracks in their design. First off, they're calling this AJAX? It _pauses_ while downloading stuff. Some core code is _not_ asynchronous.
There are a number of problems with the user interface. At one point I was prompted with a browser window about trusting the site without any comment that this would happen. When I said I didn't trust it, I ended up with a box on the screen that obscured other windows, even when they were supposedly in front of it in z-order. Assuming the content would have been implemented with Java, I don't see how this is ever going to be different, even if I had decided to trust it (Java applet components cannot have HTML-rendered components in front of them; basic browser limitation).
When I told it to add a new application, it crashed. No components worked.
Many elements of the user interface are blatant ripoffs of other people's designs. The add applications dialog uses an almost identical layout and icon set to Microsoft's similar control panel application in Windows. The icon for their "synchronize" application is a direct rip-off of Palm's HotSync icon.
And finally, when I closed the desktop window, it crashed Firefox. I couldn't switch tabs, and couldn't set the focus to any controls. I had to kill it and restart to post this message.
Well my USB drive has a rootkit built in!
First post! (just in case I am...)
I could swear that is something the wife told me to do whilst Ajaxing the Bathroom, and Toilet... Surely they could come up with a better name like...Windex or something like that
IANAL, but here is what I read in their "http://www.ajaxwindows.com/en/privacy.jspprivacy policy":
[snip]
Second, we collect personal and personally identifiable information such as your name, email address, physical address, telephone number, credit card number and information concerning software downloaded, products and content purchased, accessed and/or downloaded through our products and services.
[/snip]
[snip]
Choice/Opt-Out Back to top
We do not disclose an individual customer's personally identifiable information to third parties for third-party direct marketing purposes if we have received and processed a request from that customer not to have his or her personal information shared for this purpose. You may submit this type of opt-out request by sending an email to: information@Ajax13.com with the words "Opt Out" in the subject line, or to the following mailing address: Customer Service, Ajax13, Inc., 5960 Cornerstone Court West, Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92121. In addition, we also allow you to decide whether you want to receive further marketing information from us. If you do not want Ajax13 to send to you announcements or special offers by email, please email us in the same manner as described above with the word "Remove" in the subject line. Please allow up to two weeks for your request to be processed.
[/snip]
Looks like they can sell your info to spammers unless you opt-out. If you wan't to try them out, do not give them your "good" email address.
My "computer" has been slashdotted!
No thanks.
-- Senior Software Engineer, Attorney appearance services, locallawyerapp.com.
It's slow as hell, doesn't do anything my local desktop doesn't do already, and the interface is horrible. Other than that it's fine.
The problem with web desktops is that these guys aren't asking the question, "What problem do people have that we can solve using Javascript?" They're asking, "How cool would it be if we could make a desktop on the web?!" It's a solution looking for a problem.
This sort of thing could be REALLY useful, but not by emulating desktops. I'm never in the position where I say, "Hey, I wish I could click on desktop icons remotely." Emulating vi or emacs in Javascript, however, kicks ass, because I *always* want vi keybindings in browser text areas, and making quick changes to web sites with a decent editor in Javascript would mean I could skip the "upload the changes via ftp" step that cheap web hosts make you go through.
I also don't know why the people who write these things can't implement a "window" with a border properly so that the border doesn't lag horribly behind the window content when you drag it. Use a div, and make it draggable. Put the content inside. Then make your empty window div a Javascript prototype so that Javascript applications can subclass it. Don't worry about shiny gradients until I can drag a window without it falling apart.
If moderation could change anything, it would be illegal.