September 17, 2008
eyeOS, a Barcelona-based startup that offer the Web operating system, or Webtop is going to launch a new version end of this week, i.e. version 1.7. For those who haven’t heard of Web operating system, it is nothing new today as it is a Web OS (operating system) that provides users with the experience of desktop OS from any location or machine via a Web browser. In matter of fact, there are many players in this field, more or less about 20-30 that I came across along the way I wrote for this blog. Some are discontinued, such as the high profile YouOS, the one which is funded by Y Combinator and goowy, which is no longer accept new account registration.
eyeOS is a Web-based operating system that resembled much like a desktop OS, where users can run programs, share files, photo albums, Pop3 emails, word processors, RSS, games, calenders and many other small tool utilities. It uses JavaScript, and not like its immediate competitor Desktoptwo, which is based on Flash and must be Java and pop-up enabled. eyeOS is originally created as an open source project and until today, it remained as this software model. Users can use it as a Web-based or download and install to their Web servers in order to use it. However, to install a server version of this eyeOS successfully, one must make sure the server supports Apache 1.3.x or 2.x and PHP5 and above.
eyeOS is going to launch its latest version, i.e. 1.7 by end of this week. Currently, they’ve more than 730 registered users for this version (preview version), according to their latest blog post. For this coming version, as I looked at the improvements of it from its previous version 1.6, eyeOS has made a big leapfrog, which inspired me to write a review on this Webtop. Some notable improvements are Office support can be finally installed under Windows systems, IE6 compatible, all eyeOS applications can be completely translated, etc. To know more about this eyeOS, it is splits into six (6) major packages, with a succinct list of applications and system utilities, and if we look at all the applications such eyeVista Theme 1.6, eyePod 1.0, Gmail 1.0, they really have the pedigree of an established desktop OS such as Windows.
In overall, the future of this eyeOS is still bright, albeit that some players in this field have discontinued their development, while others are still competing with Google as it just recently launched a complete suite of an office applications called Google Docs. However, it is undeniable that eyeOS’s offering has the ability to lure in many talented third-party developers to develop applications for them, by using an easy-to-understand eyeOS toolkit.
To access to eyeOS’s latest version, you can always play it around with this Demo page.
Picture 1:
Picture 2:
