Anyway, I have a nice platinum copy of Vista Ultimate with my name on and some signatures, so that was actually a nice thing to have happen on a Tuesday.
This is turning into a day of operating systems... just on the day Microsoft awards me for making theirs marginally successful in some very big customers, I'm sitting and contemplating the future of the O/S. I've had my feet up with my coffee looking at Web based operating systems. Firstly I'm wondering what the real purpose of a web os is? Is it something I use for content generation and content storage within my existing operating system's browser, or is it something that one day I should be able to fire up without the need for Windows, or MAC OS, or Linux etc.
I've signed up for three of them today with varying degrees of usefulness out of the gate, I'm sure I need to give them more time, but YouOS, EyeOS, and Xcercion. If you're wondering why those three I was drawn to this whole experiment by a very good article by Anne Zelenka over at GigaOM full article is here.
YouOS I can see as being one of the first with business potential, the little applet pages would suit highly mobile workers with a suite of applications and services which follow them around, and that there's advantages in making available from a simple source. Say a financial advisor who visits you in your own home, they could find the YouOS application spaces nice to aggregate all of their services to one place. That, to me is the thing I like about YouOS, it's a big fat aggregator of apps and services, but I'm feeling less comfortable with calling it an "operating system", more of an internet workspace I think..
EyeOS is very impressive, not only much much more pleasing on the eye than YouOS which I cant help but feel is a bit Windows 3x (harsh I know, but the layout and little windows all over...). Also, EyeOS was the only one of the three I'd consider using long term (and I may), not only did it group some of my useful web services together but gave me the minimal authoring and editing tools for manipulating content that I might need on the fly from somewhere. I guess it's lead me to think of what I personally would need or use a WebOS for..1. Aggregate some of my most used content together in one place (like I already do with Google Documents, calendars etc.
2. Gather all my regular RSS feeds and news sources into one place, along with my email
3. Give me basic authoring tools to post and edit the kind of content I need to have mobile with me
4. Give me an application space area where I can drop useful data sources or apps in one place, without having to individually browse around
5. Give me my collaboration features and services from my various PIM's so even when I'm on the fly it's all in one place.
So, that's what I want really, light content, light collaboration and light services all in one place, for me EyeOS did a great job of that, but dont take my word for it sign up and play. Xcercion sounds impressive but isnt publically available until Q3 07, so I've joined the queue for the Beta and I'll wait and see what comes out.
I chatted about the subject with a friend in the building over morning coffee and a quick few games of pools (consistent butt kicking received by me at the hands of some extremely smug shots!). The friend in question is a flash expert of admirable reputation and got me thinking about a conversation we had last week, about the future of the operating system as a piece of software we have to interact with, and about the emerging success of the Adobe/Macromedia Flash toolset, and it's transition from "clever web sites" to "web services applications" (The lovely touch screen computer {inset} of my soon to be ordered new Jaguar is 100% flash!). One comment made was that the future of the OS might just be Adobe. After this morning of playing with EyeOS I think that's bang on.. all I want from my OS these days is a bunch of widgets/gadgets that make my life easier, access to my email, access to applications and feature rich productivity tools, and my stuff in general. Now something big and fat like Windows is probably always going to be my foundation, at least for the next 5 years, but even then, when I close down my work and my productivity tools (and im not playing a game).. when i want my personal email, and to chat to my friends I think I'd be happy doing all of that in Flash from a website..Now.. can I have widgets and new skins for the Jag please!? :)
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