Glide has launched an updated version of its web-based "operating system." Like its predecessors, Glide OS 3.0 provides users with a desktop-like space within a browser window. You can use Glide's web-based applications to create Word documents, spreadsheets, or presentations. You can also play music, manage photos and videos, and send and receive email. In other words, you can do many of the same things you'd do with a desktop operating system, but in a web browser.
What sets Glide apart from many of its competitors is that Glide offers a suite of tools that let you synchronize your files with a Windows, Mac, Linux, or Solaris machine. There's also Glide Sync software for a number of mobile phone models. Free account holders get up to 5GB of web space, and if you need more, you can shell out a few bucks a month for additional storage.
One of the new features in Glide OS 3 is a Glide Group tool that adds social networking features. You can communicate with other Glide users by sending messages or sharing media files.
Back in prehistory (or January, thereabouts) we talked a bit about webOSes, and the migration of Ewedrive to Desktop on Demand. This week we got a chance to play around with Desktop on Demand in more depth.
Desktop on Demand (DOD) is a true networked OS. It's a Linux based system, with a clean, clear GNOME interface. There is online storage, and a good mix of open source apps. Our little issue about using a browser to access a webOS to surf the web in its browser has been addressed in an innovative way: launcher clients.
Yes, DOD offers clients to launch the service. Truthfully, we heard this and got a little annoyed. But trust us when we say that this is actually a freakin' huge advantage over the old time webOS set ups. The clients are available for Windows, OS X, and Linux. They are small, and can be installed on a flash drive. If you want to keep one on a hard drive on a given computer, it runs from the downloaded location. Very easy, very unoffensive -- very personal, and very secure.
When the desktop opens, it doesn't open in a browser. Maybe this shouldn't sit better with us, but for some strange reason, it just does. It feels much more natural. There is less clutter and we could forget that we were using a completely different operating system underneath it all.
Ever wish you could find one web site that works as a social networking site, an IM service, a way to discover new music, sell your artwork, or store files online using a web-based desktop? Yeah, neither did we, but those are just a few of the services offered by Hurox, a site that's so jam-packed with features that it almost defies description.
Don't get us wrong, Hurox is hardly the only company trying to control all of your online activities. Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and others would like you to use their email, IM, calendar, photo, and video sharing services. The difference is that most companies don't try to cram everything into a single URL. And there's a good reason for that. Hurox is kind of pretty, but it also seems horribly complicated.
When you first sign up for a free account, Hurox asks you a series of questions to determine whether you're more interested in things like celebrity gossip or tech news; folk music or heavy metal; reading or watching movies; and so on. Then you get a little tour that attempts to explain what you can do with the site, but it's hard to keep everything straight when you can do everything from creating and sharing personal web pages to creating an online marketplace for selling goods.
We're all for all-in-one solutions. We love programs like 8hands or Flock that let you manage multiple social networking services at once. And Digsby does an awesome job of acting as n email notifier, chat client, and social networking monitor. But Hurox is something else altogether. It doesn't let you manage activities you were already doing online. It asks you to join yet another social network. Sure, it's a social network that's full of features, but it has so many features that we can't help but think of Hurox as a kitchen sink site. It seems like the company just added every feature they could think of without taking the time to make sure that they all make sense together.
AOL, this blog's parent company, has acquired widget and web desktop company Goowy. Goowy's original product was a webOS or webtop that you can use as an online desktop when you're away from your home computer. But while there are a ton of these services around, we're not convinced that people actually use them very much. So it's Goowy's more recent product that probably caught the eye of AOL: the YourMinis widget platform.
YourMinis widgets can be placed on almost any web page. You can add them to your iGoogle, Netvibes, or Facebook pages. Or you can add them to a desktop widget application like Vista Sidebar or Yahoo! Widget Engine. Widgets range from a YouTube video player to a Twitter application.
Goowy has been working with AOL to develop widgets for the MyAOL personalized homepage service.
Online storage service Ewedrive is shutting down and the developers are focusing their time on Desktop on Demand, an online desktop application instead. And that got us thinking. Are online desktops, or so-called "web operating systems" the new online storage?
Sure, we've been a bit down on WebOSes in the past. They sort of jumped the shark for us when companies started creating web browsers that you could access from... your web browser. But if you're creating a service that lets people store their files online, the user interface is key. The best online storage solutions already let users drag and drop files from their computer, do batch uploads, and share files with other users. Why not add a few extra applications like media players and Office documents?
After all, Desktop on Demand does everything Ewedrive did, and more. You still get 1GB of free storage space, and you can pay if you need more. If you don't want to use a web-based instant messaging application while you're there, that's fine. You don't have to. But it's nice to have the option.
We've been over this before. We don't really see the point of web-based "operating systems." You've already got an operating system, and if you need a place to store your data online or access office tools like word processors and spreadsheets, you already have a ton of options which perform better than any webOS we've seen. But companies continue to pump out webtops anyway.
And we have to say, there's something we like about ZimDesk. It has a attractive graphics and a well organized menu system. Rather than group items together in the typical Windows-style pop up menu, you can choose from office applications, internet, media, or games. Some of the games are kind of fun, and the word processor and spreadsheet applications are perfectly serviceable.
But we still have to laugh whenever we open the web browser in a web-based desktop. Because essentially we're opening a web browser inside of a web browser. Yeah, loading pages has got to be more efficient that way, right? Unfortunately we weren't able to launch ZimDesk inside of the ZimNav virtual browser. When we tried, a new instance of ZimDesk opened in a new Firefox tab.
It seems like every week a few dozen companies pump out new online "operating systems," commonly referred to as WebOSes. Essentially, they're like virtual desktops that you can access from any web browser. Each lets you run a small suite of applications like a word processor, spreadsheet, calculator, instant messenger, and in some cases, even a web browser.
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?
We know you've been sitting around waiting for yet another webOS product to launch. Because you know, they're so incredibly useful. You know, because they provide a browser-based user interface pretty much identical to the desktop from which you're launching your browser.
Anyway, if webOSes are your thing, you might want to check out atoolo. The site has been available to German users for a while, and has recently launched an English language version. Atoolo has a very Windows-like feel, with a taskbar and program menu at the bottom left of the screen.
The included applications are decent, but nothing to write home about. There's an email client, a word processor, address book, appointments, meeting planner, and some online applications like internet radio and Google Video/Google Maps.
One interesting feature is that certain "applications" like the Google Maps browser have an ad attached to the bottom of the window. The ad's relatively unobtrusive to anyone who's ever spent any time on the web, and could be a good way to make some revenue off of a webOS.
The iPhone isn't even out yet and there are scheduled conferences, iPhone specific applications and now an iPhone developer's platform.
A company called Morfik has created a platform that will give developers the ability to build applications on Apple's new iPhone. This new platform is said to be the first of its kind, and usually the first ones to market hit it big with consumers. Morfik has said that its WebOS AppsBuilder will be able to make web applications that are optimized for Safari running on iPhones. Don't have a technically included background? Morfik will also enable everyday users a way to make their own AJAX powered web applications with writing any code.
While Windows, Mac OS X, and various Linux distributions dominate the desktop operating system market, there's no clear market leader in web-based "operating systems." There's also not much of a proven demand for these services, but that doesn't stop webOSes like ajaxWindows from popping up.
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.
It seems unlikely that web based "operating systems" are going to replace the concept of the desktop OS anytime soon. But there is some appeal to the idea of having a central desktop with access to your documents, files, word processor, and RSS feeds no matter what computer you're using.
EyeOS is hardly the only name in the web operating system game, but the recently launched EyeOS 1.0 makes a pretty compelling case that a web OS could actually work. Web-based applications, (including a word processor, chess game, calendar, calculator, and process manager) load quickly and are easy to use. The desktop has a clean and modern feel to it. The list of applications is pretty light, with no spreadsheet or presentation software.
But EyeOS is open source, and anyone can develop applications that will run on the platform. So if you're not happy with the current software available, you've only got yourself to blame.
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 some of these attempts, and mentions a relative newcomer: XIN. I've been playing with Goowy for a while now and find it amusing and useful, not to mention getting better all the time. It's only a matter of time and maturity before the best of these are either acquired or get swept up in a MySpace-esque social vector. Anyone got a particular favorite in this race of could be's? To me they are like fancy cars- nice to look at, but not practical for driving to work every day.
Over at ZDNet's Web
2.0 Explorer Richard MacManus rounds up all of the current WebOS
offerings. A WebOS, of course, is "a software platform that interacts with the user through a web browser and
does not depend on any particular local operating system," and MacManus counts six of them out in the wild, not
including the fabled GoogleOS, and in the pull-quote says, "It wouldn't surprise me if one of the small startups
I've mentioned here goes on to become the next Linux."
Back in prehistory (or January, thereabouts) we talked a bit about webOSes, and the migration of 
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 
