Public Beta For OpenDesk

Isaac-Lew wrote to us pointing out that Opendesk.com has gone into public beta. From the looks of it, they are trying to implement an Office-like suite of features on the Web. Word Processor and such are still forthcoming, but they have got calendering tools, web mail and other "applications" in place. One of the most interesting aspects is that they claim to be open sourcing the project. I can't quite tell if it's a Sun-style commuity source licensem, or a GPL ^[?] style license.

Comments

Re:OpenDesk licensing (URL)

[Ed Avis]

'When Licences Collide'

Hopefully Corel's recent experience with licence clashes will convince them to go with an existing choice (preferably GPL, LGPL or XFree) rather than inventing YAL. I have argued previously on Slashdot that the whole QPL 'you give us rights to do what we like with your modificiations' thing is unnecessary, since companies require copyright assignment for legal security in any case.

OpenDesk licensing (URL)

[davie]

http://www.opendesk.com/Login/vslicens e.html

In a nutshell, they haven't decided on their final license yet. They state that whatever license they decide on, it will be OSI-friendly.

License

[Telcontar]

There are actually two licenses:

"OpenDesk.com public license (ODPL), and the SmartWorker public license (SWPL). The former covers applications written and hosted within OpenDesk.com. The latter covers our open source application framework, SmartWorker.

The two licenses differ in the following ways:

1. SWPL applies to the core API that OpenDesk.com is built on. However, it can also be used for
non-OpenDesk.com software and, therefore, must be flexible to accommodate other uses. The SWPL will
be similar in intent and structure to the GNU Library General Public License (LGPL, available at http://www.fsf.org/copyleft/lesser.html). This means that it will allow linking with non Open Source code while always remaining free and Open Source itself.

2. ODPL is more strict than SWPL insofar as it does not allow linking to non-Open Source code. Anyone
who uses ODPL covered code in either a new distribution or a new server application must release the source code to their software under ODPL. While the GNU General Public License (GPL, available at http://www.fsf.org/copyleft/gpl.html) was considered, we are finalizing a license closer to the Mozilla Public License (MPL, available at http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/MPL-1.0.html) as it is clearer about uses of source code in server applications, as well as including the aforementioned patent and copyright infringement clauses."

Office Suite??!

[BadlandZ]

Uh... People are talking about this like it's a DE for X or something. AFAIK, this isn't a DE, and it's not a UI for X at all.

From the looks of it, it's a thing where you set up "your desktop" on thier web server, and thus can access "your desktop" through a browser from anywhere....

Maybe I'm wrong here, but this isn't the next KDE/Gnome... It's a weird spin on client/server "work environments." And, I'll add to that, I'd much rather have a nice big server on a local LAN and do "X -query server" ;-) for a more traditional way of keeping all my work in one place and accessing it from anywhere (locally, bandwidth allowing ;-)

Do you want all your info on the web?

[c era]

While this is a great idea, who is going to prevent the company from viewing your workspace. Now some of you will think I'm just paranoid, but look at how many ISP were reading e-mail. With the current laws in place it is legal for them to "check" your workspace to "make sure" no laws are being broken.

They also make it seem that it is imposible to get your password because they use challenge-responce. Let's get real, look at NT!

I have a problem with this

[aheitner]

I don't want to run apps that suck.

This includes, dismissively (evidence the the contrary lacking completely, in my experience)

- all wordprocessors, IDEs, and anything else written in Java. Too many compatibility problems with JITC (no one's stuff works with anyone else's), and otherwise way too slow.
Forget it.

- any app run through a web browser. Come on, the web browser is the single flakiest app on my machine. Slow, bloated, crashy. IE5 is better than Netscape but not so much so that I'd want my productivity to depend on a web based desktop.
Also forget it.

A call to application developers:

There is, to paraphrase Carmack, a self-imposed discipline that comes from supporting multiple platforms. Get yourself a nice cross-platform widget library, Gtk+ (1.0 works in win32, but they need to spend the time to get 1.2 to win32 perfectly), wxWindows, Qt and pay for it, I don't care.

No Motif. Period.

No MFC. Period.

Anything you write should run beautifully on my SPARC 5 85MHz. Period. Nothing useful may ever require more power than that.

...

The OpenDesktop song is pretty good tho :)

Re:I have a problem with this

[greenrd]

anything else written in Java. Too many compatibility problems with JITC,

Just in time compilation, if that's what you mean by JITC, doesn't cause any compatibility problems AFAIK. It's VM implementors (including Sun) not implementing the APIs correctly (usually by accident). The core Java 2 Platform APIs will be staying pretty much fixed for some time now, so chances are compatibility problems will be seen less and less.

No-one's stuff works with anyone else's

Come on. That's a teeny bit exaggerated. Yes there are problems, but these are small compared to using say C or C++ to develop the average serious cross-platform app.

Gtk+ (1.0 works in win32, but they need to spend the time to get 1.2 to win32 perfectly)

Hmmm... I smell double standards. "Java has temporary problems? Bin it! GTK has temporary problems? Don't worry, it'll be sorted out soon." Even if GTK manages to be a cross-platform widget library, there's still other issues like code generation, filesystem, networking, etc. Java gives you a complete VM, GTK doesn't.

So, you're not using Java because it has small problems - but you recommend GTK even though it has much larger holes in its cross-platform abilities?? That doesn't make sense to me.

There is... a self-imposed discipline that comes from supporting multiple platforms.

There's also much discipline to be learnt from coding 80186 assembler - I know, believe me. That's not a good reason for using it. (Yes, before anyone flames, there really was an 80186 chip - the RM Nimbus was one example of a machine that made us of it.)

If you just happen to like C better than Java, fine, but don't dress up your prejudices with false and ill-informed reasoning!

Re:Security

[KrAphtd1nN3r]

Hey, I'm one of the core developers of the system, and I'm currently in charge of the Crypto modules. In one of the following versions, you will be able to encrypt your data on the server, using an algorithm of your choice (3DES, Blowfish, etc.).

I'm sorry, just didn't see the email you sent.

Not a troll - do slashdotters get the web?

[Anonymous Coward]

Many of the posts I see in here (which are moderated up), seem to extoll the desktop model, while doubting the efficacy of networked applications.

This is odd considering that as a group, you already make extensive use of a web message board technology by virtue of using this site.

While I don't agree with the "web site as desktop" metaphor, there is obvious power in website as applications.

I've never seen "desktop applications" as terribly useful - I get around, and I need data to be accessible from wherever I am. Web email, file storage, and messaging apps are crucial to me.

I can't even remember the hassles of having to haul around my own laptop in order to see my data.

I understand there are security concerns. Use sites that emply ssl, pick your password intelligently - you'll be fine.

When I see people devoting their time to making calendar apps for KDE or GTK, I can't help but think that these folks just don't understand. Even though it sounds pithy, Sun is correct - "the network is the computer".