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Filed under: Design, OS Updates, Web services

How many Web OS's are there?

web osAt 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.

Filed under: Web services

An overview of the WebOS landscape

Web 2.0Over 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."

Featured Time Waster

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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