All fair points (even the commies one!) but I figured I'd add some type of perspective to it. As many others said, can't really read TFA because there isn't one. Also, yes Plan9 is a solution and yes a webserver is a solution, but you still have issues such as technical and financial ones when dealing with those plans. With a thing like YouOS, it's as simple as providing a name and email address and in turn you're given a working system which provides all the tools you could need, some space and some bandwidth for free. It removes expenses and technical background requirements which is a great thing for some people.
Granted, I understand that this may not be the most practical solution to whatever the problem is. That in turn may be the real issue with YouOS, but I also think it has something to it considering all of the services provided are free as of this point.
I know that these online OSes have become a trend somewhat, but I've found this one rather neat myself. Granted, some of the things make you wonder "What's the point?" Well, with YouOS in particular, it acts on a server-wide filesystem. It shares similar traits to that of a UNIX type filesystem. For example, if I create a directory, say something like/my_username/youfs/shared_files and changed the permissions of the directory for a certain user (chmod username shared_files) then that user can interact with the files in that directory. Depending on what permissions you apply to the directory itself (read/write) determines what you allow him or her to do. In other words, you have a new way to share files which is very familiar for many users. Access to data from anywhere for free (limited bandwidth, but free) is a nice thing to have also.
This may still be one of those "solutions looking for a problem," but it does by far hold some neat innovation to it IMHO.
Slashdot Mirror
Granted, I understand that this may not be the most practical solution to whatever the problem is. That in turn may be the real issue with YouOS, but I also think it has something to it considering all of the services provided are free as of this point.
I know that these online OSes have become a trend somewhat, but I've found this one rather neat myself. Granted, some of the things make you wonder "What's the point?" Well, with YouOS in particular, it acts on a server-wide filesystem. It shares similar traits to that of a UNIX type filesystem. For example, if I create a directory, say something like /my_username/youfs/shared_files and changed the permissions of the directory for a certain user (chmod username shared_files) then that user can interact with the files in that directory. Depending on what permissions you apply to the directory itself (read/write) determines what you allow him or her to do. In other words, you have a new way to share files which is very familiar for many users. Access to data from anywhere for free (limited bandwidth, but free) is a nice thing to have also.
This may still be one of those "solutions looking for a problem," but it does by far hold some neat innovation to it IMHO.