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You OS Web Based Operating System

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sun Jul 23, 2006 09:20 AM
Operating Systems Programming The Internet
Juergen writes "You OS comes from the MIT Labs and contains an email client, Chat Function, RSS Reader, and Text Editor. YouOS is a web operating system that lets you run diverse applications within a web browser. Small applications like sticky notes or clocks. Large applications like word processing, mp3 players, and instant messaging. Even better, it's very easy to tweak an existing application or write your own. "
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  • Title? (Score:5, Funny)

    by porkThreeWays (895269) on Sunday July 23 2006, @09:23AM (#15765811)
    From the title it looked like this was a bad "in soviet Russia" joke...
  • YouOS: Breaking news! by cunina (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @09:24AM
  • Great title by Eternauta3k (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @09:24AM
  • Ok.... by creepynut (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @09:25AM

  • I will not bite! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by bogaboga (793279) on Sunday July 23 2006, @09:26AM (#15765819)
    While the idea is great, I will not bite in this case because my ISP places a limit on how much traffic can be allowed through my network interface with my current plan. Even though I can "upgrade", the costs are just prohibitive. Sorry, I will not bite.
    • Re:I will not bite! by rob_squared (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @09:46AM
      • Not so sure. by jotaeleemeese (Score:2) Monday July 24 2006, @11:29AM
    • Re:I will not bite! by BoomerSooner (Score:3) Sunday July 23 2006, @09:50AM

    • Great? In what way? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by misleb (129952) on Sunday July 23 2006, @02:05PM (#15766554)
      While the idea is great,


      Could someone please explain to me why this is a great idea? Besides the novelty. What place does YouOS have in a world where people (well, geeks, actually) debate endlessly about which desktop is the fastest/full featured/whatever? Certainly YouOS would fail to meet most anyone's criteria for a generally useful desktop.

      Come on people, this "web based OS" idea is stupid. Admit it. And it is not just because of fact that "Operating System" is a great misnomer in this case. From their FAQ:

      "Need to send or receive email or text/instant messages? We're working on providing full communication APIs."

      If that gets you excited, then I have a network stack written in BASIC to sell you. ANd it runs in a browser! Amazing, huh? Forget the fact that your current operating system already comes with a perfectly good network stack and running mine would be completely redundant and pointless.

      -matthew
      [ Parent ]
    • If every city has the same ISP... by tepples (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @01:36PM
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.

  • It's not an OS (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 23 2006, @09:27AM (#15765820)
    It's a bunch of applications. Yes, if you're Joe Sixpack, then that's what defines an OS, but it's not a real OS. I'm not sure what it's scheduling characteristics are, it probably doesn't have peripherals (or can you plugin your USB stick or camera?), I'm not sure it has swapping, etc...

    And is there an SDK around? If so, it'd sound like the ideal computing slave. SETI here goes... (ok, maybe it has resource quotas, which would actually make it an interesting project...)

  • How deep can it go? (Score:5, Informative)

    by AdamBomb8705 (966960) on Sunday July 23 2006, @09:31AM (#15765823)
    Upon seeing this, I immediately wondered whether the OS's web browser could run itself. I'm posting this comment from inside YouBrowser, which is running on YouOS inside of another YouBrowser inside of YouOS in Firefox. So looks like it's possible. I wonder how many levels you could go down...

  • EyeOS (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Randomskk (990494) on Sunday July 23 2006, @09:32AM (#15765827)
    (http://randomskk.net/)
    This is pretty similar to EyeOS ( http://eyeos.org/ [eyeos.org] ), which runs on any web server and lets you use apps (IM, RSS, web browser, games, etc) in it, change the background etc. I've got this running on my web server, and if nothing else it's great when I want to check the /. RSS while away from home :P
    • Re:EyeOS by greenguy (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @10:21AM
      • Re:EyeOS by EXMSFT (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @12:03PM
    • Re:EyeOS by also-rr (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @10:46AM
      • Re:EyeOS by also-rr (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @10:48AM
      • Re:EyeOS by misleb (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @02:28PM
      • Re:EyeOS by eporue (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @05:59PM
    • Re:EyeOS by jbarr (Score:3) Sunday July 23 2006, @06:55PM
      • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.

  • Online mp3 player (Score:3, Informative)

    by cyp43r (945301) <cyp43r@gmail.com> on Sunday July 23 2006, @09:39AM (#15765844)
    Wow, this is innovative. Oh yes, I'll just stream my music up and YouOS will stream back the sound. If you have any even moderate amounts of music, this is sort of ridiculous on a limit. If I play 14 CD's, that's my entire months limit gone almost (10GB). Unless, of course, it compresses it or plays at a low bitrate, which rather belies the point of having one. What's wrong with Winamp?
  • Not the first... by hackel (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @09:46AM

  • "Too many users online" (Score:4, Insightful)

    by lonesometrainer (138112) <<vanlil> <at> <yahoo.com>> on Sunday July 23 2006, @09:47AM (#15765863)
    Ever had that message with your local workstation?

    This is just another playground for the next gen. of Dot-Com-Companies, nothing serious.

    a.) web-applications rely on high-speed-always-on internet connections (I'll be in an airplane this afternoon, no text processing for me then?)

    b.) Will always offer less features and a bad UI compared to classical desktop applications, because restricted by web browser capablilites

    c.) are currently much harder to code than classical desktop apps (e.g. editable drop down boxes anyone? Easy thing in NetBeans/VS .NET, very tough in webapps or server-pushing information to the client, requires long-lasting GET requests filtered by many firewalls)

    d.) collaborative features are easily added to classical desktop apps

    Conclusion: less possibilities, harder to code (you'll always be tricking, hacking to get a nice effect), bad UI (restricted by browsers)

    The only competition to desktop apps I do currently see is MS XAML.

    Bye!

    • Re:"Too many users online" (Score:5, Insightful)

      by LS (57954) on Sunday July 23 2006, @10:59AM (#15766059)
      (http://slashdot.org/)
      I believe that your points are flawed:

      a.) web-applications rely on high-speed-always-on internet connections (I'll be in an airplane this afternoon, no text processing for me then?)

      That may be the case now, but give a few years or so (3-7 years maybe), and high speed wireless internet will be ubiquitous. Also, the final forms of these applications will probably involve some kind a hybrid between desktop and web applications, with some kind of caching mechanism for when no connectivity is available.

      b.) Will always offer less features and a bad UI compared to classical desktop applications, because restricted by web browser capablilites

      Current browser companies/groups, standards organizations, and OS vendors are all well aware of the current browser's limitations and are working feverishly to create full-fledged networked baeed application frameworks. You can already see bits and pieces with XAML, XUL, SVG, AJAX, etc. Yes, we're not there yet, but it's inevitable.

      c.) are currently much harder to code than classical desktop apps (e.g. editable drop down boxes anyone? Easy thing in NetBeans/VS .NET, very tough in webapps or server-pushing information to the client, requires long-lasting GET requests filtered by many firewalls)

      long-lasting GET requests? I'm not sure what you are talking about here - is this something that is utilized with AJAX? Regarding the rest of this bulletpoint, see my response to (b). Also, I'm sure as web apps become more critical to businesses, firewall software as well as their admistrators' configuration preferences will adapt.

      d.) collaborative features are easily added to classical desktop apps

      You are kidding right? This is the big *advantage* of web-based apps. Have you tried using Google's spreadsheets yet? Contacting a user through g-mail and sharing the same spreadsheet... it doesn't get any more collaborative than that.

      LS
      [ Parent ]
    • Re:"Too many users online" by ejp1082 (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @09:35PM

  • Not quite new, but (Score:5, Interesting)

    by NotFamousYet (937650) on Sunday July 23 2006, @09:50AM (#15765877)
    YouOS has been around for a while, and it's part of a growing trend of online desktops (I refuse to refer to them as "Online OSes", because they're simply a desktop page that launches programs, an alternative to Explorer at best).

    If you're interested in this area, check out also:
    FlyaKiteOSX [portraitofakite.com]
    the 30Boxes Webtop [30boxes.com]
    EyeOS [eyeos.org]
    Computadora [computadora.de] (in Spanish, even though .de ?)
    Goowy [goowy.com] (it's in Flash though)

    And of course, because this is Slashdot, I couldn't go without mentionning that Google is probably preparing their own [aymnetwork.com], since their recent focus on releasing equivalents of desktop applications online (Notes, Excel, Word, Calendar, Picasa, etc) :)
  • Interesting... by MMC Monster (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @09:55AM
  • Uh-Oh by psema4 (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @09:58AM
    • Re:Uh-Oh by CowboyBob500 (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @01:51PM
    • Re:Uh-Oh by misleb (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @03:21PM
      • Re:Uh-Oh by psema4 (Score:1) Monday July 24 2006, @10:24AM
        • Re:Uh-Oh by misleb (Score:2) Monday July 24 2006, @12:21PM
          • Re:Uh-Oh by psema4 (Score:1) Monday July 24 2006, @01:48PM
    • Re:Uh-Oh by psema4 (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @10:39AM
      • Re:Uh-Oh by DrSkwid (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @11:35AM
        • Re:Uh-Oh by psema4 (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @12:25PM
          • Re:Uh-Oh by DrSkwid (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @12:41PM
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • Not really an OS by Arimus (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @10:03AM
  • Personal Exerience with YouOS by dswain (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @10:08AM
  • Privacy Anyone? by shaneFalco (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @10:13AM
  • Damn! by ElephanTS (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @10:18AM
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • WebOS? Quite honestly... by dud83 (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @10:20AM

  • 2x OS (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MarsDude (74832) on Sunday July 23 2006, @10:24AM (#15765966)
    (http://www.marsdude.com/)
    So... to run this OS, I need an OS to run the browser I can run that OS in... Doesn't sound like overkill at all
    • Take it further by cyp43r (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @10:40AM
    • Re:2x OS by guice (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @11:07AM
    • Re:2x OS by TrueJim (Score:3) Sunday July 23 2006, @11:36AM
    • nx OS by wodelltech (Score:3) Sunday July 23 2006, @06:23PM

  • Operating System? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 23 2006, @10:24AM (#15765967)
    When did we start confusing a desktop "shell" application and a handfull of basic functions with an "Operating System"?

    An operating system is the code that provides the operating environment in which these programs run; not the programs themselves; a layer between the hardware and the application programs that provides a uniform environment, manages resources, arbitrates contentions, provides synchronization primatives such as semaphores, schedules CPU utilization, etc. Its "users" are programs, not people; its user interfaces are APIs; not shells. Shells and other application programs provide what we traditionally think of as USER interfaces for interacting with humans.

    Along with the operating system one often finds a suite of shell programs (textual or GUI), basic applications and administrative programs to provide a user environment. These may be included in the operating system package, and are helpful or even essential in making the operating system usable but are not themselves the operating system or part of it.

    This important distinction seems to be lost on the likes of Microsoft. Perhaps as a result, this disturbing misconception seems to be spreading throughout the community.

    If the "You OS" involves somewhere an operating system, it lives on their server infrastructure and the users never see it.
  • boooooo by squizzz (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @10:29AM
  • The name makes me wonder by Stormwatch (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @10:39AM
  • A Browser OS? by openldev (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @10:47AM
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • Pretty impressive demo. by mshiltonj (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @10:50AM
  • As a fan and an Irishman by winkydink (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @11:00AM
  • eyeos.org by dotfucked.org (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @11:33AM
  • done before... by dioscaido (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @11:34AM
  • Virus by MikeWasHere05 (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @11:42AM
    • Re:Virus by Psycosys (Score:1) Monday July 24 2006, @02:32AM
  • Tried it..it's cool but WHY? by Danathar (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @11:44AM

  • A better solution (Score:5, Funny)

    by Millenniumman (924859) on Sunday July 23 2006, @12:14PM (#15766257)
    A better web based OS could be made by allowing people to ssh into a computer running emacs. Then you'd have a full fledged OS, instead of a limited one like this. Plus, if you added vim, you would have a good text editor.
  • interesting - they seem to be using.. by BigGerman (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @12:24PM
  • Opera 9 by Joebert (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @12:48PM
  • Online OS by saikatblogger (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @01:11PM
  • Pointless? by sjipca (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @01:47PM
  • Workspot by celticmonkey (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @01:53PM
  • Is it really an OS if it requires a web browser? I don't know about you, but I expect my OS to do the simple things. Like boot. And manage devices.

  • Think Citrix or Terminal Server or X or.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by wandazulu (265281) on Sunday July 23 2006, @02:07PM (#15766559)
    This is a great idea in the same way that Citrix, Terminal Server, and X in general is a good idea: you need next to nothing to run big, complex, perhaps very expensive software. This site doesn't have any of that, trying instead to replicate a typical desktop, but the idea is a great one and one I"m sure we'll see a lot more in the future. While X is defacto free but can't be run through a browser, Citrix and Termnial Server (both of which do have browser versions), cost a lot of money in liceneses, etc.

    Yes, technically it isn't an OS and it's performance isn't all that great, but they're not exactly promising anything; this makes for a good proof of conceptm and I wouldn't be surprised if somebody like SalesForce takes the idea and runs with it; I think we'll probably see *real* web-based desktops within ten years (where the apps are full enough featured and fast) and don't need activex or java.

  • Not particularly useful w/o other apps by 93 Escort Wagon (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @02:19PM
  • True Operating System? by treak007 (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @02:46PM
  • I can already see a flaw.. by Rorian (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @02:50PM
  • OS no no, Shell yes. by el_jake (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @03:14PM
  • Weird by kanzels (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @03:53PM
  • That YouOS business plan in full by daybot (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @04:03PM
  • konqueror support by MADnificent (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @04:48PM
  • news? by evandrofisico (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @07:44PM
  • Web Filter? by DaFallus (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @07:51PM
  • OS? by nurb432 (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @08:43PM
  • another possible name??? by apaciq (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @09:03PM
  • what about my taxes ? by cinnamon colbert (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @10:46PM
  • What's the point? by Scentless (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @10:46PM
  • After using it... by +Suez (Score:1) Monday July 24 2006, @03:03AM
  • Great idea, but is really your browser the tool? by Knutsi (Score:2) Monday July 24 2006, @03:31AM
  • GoogleOS? YahooOS? MozillaOS? WebOS? by +Suez (Score:1) Monday July 24 2006, @03:35AM
  • What could Microsoft do to counter YouOs and simi? by Varris (Score:1) Tuesday July 25 2006, @10:10AM
  • Re:i'd go another level by Millenniumman (Score:2) Sunday July 23 2006, @12:09PM
  • Re:Why? by KDR_11k (Score:1) Sunday July 23 2006, @02:23PM
  • 16 replies beneath your current threshold.

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