smr’s blog

got this in some feed. reminded me of what i had written on another bc blog sometime back. reposting here.
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There has been a lot of buzz for some time now on WebOS. Its defined as virtual operating system that runs in your web browser..

If you are not totally computer illiterate, you must know the very basic definition of OS ( Operating System ) is a computer program that manages the hardware and software resources of a computer.

WebOS is not supposed to be anything of that sort. To be more precise.. it tries to mimic what a desktop does : manages files and folders, helps in running other apps easily.

If i have made my point clear, lets correct our terminology before we more forward.. lets call it ‘Web Desktop’.

Here is a nice review of 10 popular web desktops. If you have not yet tried your hands on any of the web desktops.. you must. A few of them are really cool and can become the future.

WebOS needs a browser to run into. And there is yet no clean way to run a browser without a Desktop Manager. There is not much point in going for web desktop, while you have a PC Desktop. A simple solution like syncing your files on some public server can serve the job of Desktop available from anywhere. And while you have a PC to run full ( and trendy ) Desktop, why should one go to still primitive interface of web desktop. The point i want to make is that there is not a environment for a web desktop yet.

But.. still webdesktop is the future. But different than the current form. There is need of thin OS first.. which allows one to run a web desktop directly on a very low end machine. This will allow reducing the cost and size of the desktop ( or laptop ). And a good internet (wifi) ofcourse.

Web Desktop will not be able to enter mainstream if the problem is not approached from three directions simultaneously : Web Desktop, thin OS, and light hardware. This will probably happen only if a single organization pack all of it into a single package.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 at 8:01 pm and is filed under browser, technical, web2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.