This week, French company Jooce launched a beta version of a slick looking WebOS, and we shrugged. It's hard to care anymore. Mashable's put together a list of more than 45 WebOS applications. And that might be just the tip of the iceberg.
Sure, the world would be a better place if we had more than 3 or 4 desktop operating systems to choose from (assuming you don't run into file compatibility problems). But seriously, do we need 50 different webtops? In fact, do we need one? There's not a single thing you can do with Jooce, EyeOS, Ataloo, AjaxWindows, or any other WebOS that you can't do with Zoho, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, and a good online storage site.
We could see a WebOS being useful if the world was filled with dumb terminals that had nothing but a web browser installed. Then you could go to any terminal and access a powerful online desktop. But instead, you can use your powerful computer to access a stripped down version of all the same tools that are already on your desktop.
Seriously, does anybody actually use any of these services? Bueller? Bueller?



At this point web-based "operating systems" have to fight seemingly insurmountable odds to really work well. There are limits in the codebase (choosing JavaScript versus Flash, or a combo of both, results in a few compromises). There are limits within the browser itself (can't save if the window gets closed, or if the connection goes south). But that's not stopping people from trying. Webby's World has a little blurb about
EyeOS











