AjaxWindows is certainly one of the more polished web operating systems out there. You get the distinct impression that you're using an actual operating system and not just a series of web-based services from within your browser. It includes a couple of applications like a PowerPoint style presentation viewer/creator, a word processor, music player, and drawing program. Oddly, there's no spreadsheet application.
There's also integration with a variety of web services such as Gmail, Flickr, and Meebo. For example, when you click on the instant messaging application, web-based multi-chat client Meebo opens up. In other words, there's little you can do with ajaxWindows that you couldn't have just done from Firefox.
AjaxWindows does provide you with 1GB of online storage, so the idea is that you can synchronize data from your desktop and access it with a familiar interface wherever you go. But it's only familiar if you use it at home, and that just seems a bit silly.
[via TechCrunch]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-15-2007 @ 3:40PM
Don said...
Same here - even though I've never been there, I get "already a registered email address" when I try to register, or I get "Error-Not a registered user" when I attempt the test drive. Dumb.
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6-15-2007 @ 4:24PM
Joe said...
It is not an operating system ... it is an application design to mimic an operating system.
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6-15-2007 @ 5:23PM
MM said...
Does not work. I'm getting a popup saying Sorry, not a registered user. Same thing even after I registered.
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6-15-2007 @ 6:14PM
Andrew Schrock said...
Maybe it should be called a FOS - Faux Operating System?
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6-16-2007 @ 8:51AM
web said...
It doesnt work w Opera
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6-16-2007 @ 11:21AM
James said...
How much are they going to get sued for when MS realizes they jacked almost all the UI elements from WinXP? Seriously, most of the buttons and icons are either screencaps of a WinXP button, or a very, very similar "homage".
Neat idea, I guess, but I don't see when it would be useful.
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6-16-2007 @ 10:59PM
Clarion said...
I registered with no problem, but then it doesn't seem to work properly, and it crashed Firefox.
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6-19-2007 @ 7:49AM
mikael bergkvist said...
Try http://www.widgetplus.com instead.
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6-20-2007 @ 7:45AM
Colin said...
Wow. I was working up a big diatribe regarding web OS, but http://widgetplus.com/ summed it up for me in complete suckitude: The desktop OS will continue to exist so long as crap like Widget+ seeps from the woodwork.
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6-23-2007 @ 9:03AM
mikael bergkvist said...
Whats the problem with widgetplus?
I think it's working pretty ok for oline file management, it's not supposed to be an online webos.
It runs in most browsers and it's pretty fast. :-)
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6-23-2007 @ 10:42AM
David said...
The site is no longer accesible.
.htaccess secured
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8-29-2007 @ 10:06PM
hobay said...
you give a user and password
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