Web desktops



An annotated, non-exhaustive, listing of free (though possibly closed source) and open source web desktops (‘webtops’); other common terms are ‘webOS’ and ‘virtual computer’. My reviews and ratings (n/10) are based on my own experience of using each of these webstops; your experience may be different (and maybe, at the time you read this, some of these webtops will have matured … or even disappeared). See also the useful, albeit quirky and franticly hurried, overview of seven of the webtops at:

See also:
» http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_desktop
» http://mashable.com/2007/08/22/web-os/

eyeos.pngEyeOS and CmyOS
Licence: AGPL
Rating: 7/10
First launched on 1st August 2005, EyeOS has been around for a while. I first signed up for an account sometime in early Spring 2006; and was not, at that time, aware of any other ‘webtops’, so was mightily impressed. Still good; but in some respects (features, extensibility, …) less impressive than more recent rivals. CmyOS appears to be an implementation of EyeOS more oriented towards content management.
Applications: own office suite (eyeDocs, eyeSheets, eyePresentation) supporting MS Office and OpenOffice.org formats, eyeCalendar, EyeCalc, eyeFTP, eyeContacts, eyeNotes, eyeNav (web browser), eyeTerre (Flash Earth giving choice of Goople Maps, MS Virtual Earth, and several other), five games. Open source; can download for one’s own installation.
Integration / extensibility: no apparent integration with other services; apparently not possible to extend with further services
Disk space: not known
» http://eyeos.info
» http://www.cmyos.com

Further information:
» http://www.eyeos.org/start
» http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EyeOS

youos.pngYouOS
Licence: Proprietary? “The client side javascript is available under a modified BSD license. You can view the source code here or download the gzipped tarball here.”
Rating: 8/10
On the downside, still in Alpha, with a rather unexciting Gnome-like desktop, and (by today’s standards) somewhat miserly disk space (though, according to the FAQs, “this will probably be expanded in the future”). Set against that, designed ground-up as a collaboration space enabling users to share windows through a buddy list, one of the very few webtops offering a shell, the only webtop supporting virtualisation (quite simply by way of the fantastic FreeOSZoo project nested within a browser … running ReactOS, FreeBSD, and Open Solaris inside of YousOS inside of Firefox on top of Sabayon was truly spooky), plus the joys of a package manager reminiscent of Ubuntu’s Adept that, additionally, allows one to rate applications. Not the prettiest, maybe, but this was one of only 2 or 3 webtops that I could actually get excited about.
Applications: very few applications pre-installed. See below, however …
Integration / extensibility: excellent. Currently (April 2008) 784 apps that can be added, including the OpenOffice.org suite, ThinkFree office suite, the Zoho office suite, Google Docs, GMail, Flash Earth, and Last.fm. Possibly the most fully featured and extensible of all the webtops.
Disk space: 250MB; 1GB of bandwidth per month
Customisability: can change wallpaper

» http://www.youos.com

ajaxwindows.pngajaxWindows
Licence: Proprietary; closed source
Rating: 8 /10
A mature and very slick webtop, with full-screen option. All in all very impressive.
Applications: most of the applications would would ever need: MS Office / OpenOffice-compatible word-processor and presentation apps ajaxWrite and ajaxPresents, ajaxSketch vector drawing package, plus the Zoho office suite, several Google apps, a bookmark manager, music player, address book, an instant messenger, a photo editor, its SyncWizard for synchronising data between ajaxWindows and local hard disks, a bunch of others applications too many to mention, as well as dozens of further apps that can be added, many via the ‘ajax Launcher’ pulling in common web apps from the internet.

» http://www.ajaxwindows.com

osxmercury.pngCosmos OS X Mercury
Licence: GPLv3
Rating: 7 /10
FreeBSD-based Mac OS X clone; full-screen option. This is just beautiful! but, at the time of writing (April 2008), this looks more like a proof-of-concept than a viable choice of webtop. That said, COSMOS (Complete Open Source Material Operating System) is ultimately intended to become an open source desktop alternative to Linux and BSD rather than a webtop … so I assume the latter really is, right now, simply a showcase for the former.
Applications: alas, at the present time too few: clones of Safari, Mail, iTunes, iChat, iPhoto, iWeb, and Preview.
Customisability: can change wallpaper and display size via System Preferences
Disk space: unknown
» http://www.se51.net

ulteo.pngUlteo
Licence: Free software … GPL?
Rating: 6.5 /10
From Gaël Duval, the creator of Mandrake Linux (and, in Ulteo, it shows). Debian-based Ulteo is available both as a webtop and as a desktop distro. Shareable (by invitation) desktop sessions make this a great platform for online collaboration. My only disappointment (and this is why it gets a 6.5 rather than a 7.5) is that users are timed out after around 25 minutes (paid Premium options offer up to 10Gb of storage and no timeout).
Applications: all the apps you’d expect from a Linux distro … OpenOffice.org, GIMP, Inkscape, Kopete, Skype, Firefox, Thunderbird, … don’t need to list them all, do I?
Disk space: 1Gb (more for paid accounts)
» http://ulteo.com

oodesk.pngOodesk
Licence: Proprietary; closed source
Rating: 7/10
From a Sophia-Antipolis technopole-based outfit, Centre International des Communications Avancées, in the south of France. An Ubuntu / Linux Mint / etc, look’n'feel, with KDE desktop. Pre-given shortcuts to common web apps (Facebook, Gmail, Yahoo! mail, Google Maps, etc). Full-screen option. Really is pronounced ‘oo-desk’, apparently. See video overview and tutorials here.
Applications: All the basic applications you’d want and expect. Easy upload and download of documents between virtual and local drives via the ‘file explorer’.
Disk space: unknown
» http://www.oodesk.com

ghost.pngG.ho.st
Licence: Proprietary
Rating: 8.5 /10
Where, for example, Ulteo or YouOS aim more towards the business user, G.ho.st lies more at the personal (indeed, fun) end of the spectrum, though without compromsing on productivity applications. One-click login once you’ve created your account; 3Gb of storage, your own email account (<name>@g.ho.st) with a further 3GB of mail storage. Looks great; has just about all the apps you’ll need (though not necessarily all the apps you’d want … where’s GIMP?)
Applications: the Zoho office suite, web browser, mail client, Last.fm, MP3 player, calculator, calendar, etc. With a more extensive range of applications, plus something like ajaxWindows’ SyncWizard to synchronise between local and remote disks, plus real-time collaboration / webtop sharing, I’d happily rate this one 10 / 10.
Disk space: 3Gb data + 3Gb mail storage

» http://g.ho.st

desktoptwo.pngDesktopTwo
Licence: AGPLv1 / Creative Commons
Rating: 6.5 /10
Still in beta (at the time of viewing (14 April 2008), this is a Flash- and Java-based offering from Mexico. Advertising-supported and, so far as I can see, impossible to get rid of the ads on the screen.
Applications: A fair range of applications, including the OpenOffice suite, WYSIWYG HTML editor, a MP3 player, a RSS reader, email, calendar, address book, and instant messanger. Other apps are under development.
Disk space: unknown
» http://desktoptwo.com
Further information:
» http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DesktopTwo

zimdesk.pngZimDesk
Licence: unknown
Rating: 7.5 /10
Linux-based. Aesthetically elegant, loads quickly, good suite of core applications. No full-screen option so far as I can see. (The branded ‘Zimwrite’, ‘Zimcalc’, ‘Zimsheet’, ‘ZimRadio’, ‘ZimTV’, ‘ZimEarth’, etc, are really just pretty repackaging of standard Linux, Flash, and Ajax apps … Jabber, FlashEarth, MPlayer, Audaceous, etc).
Disk space: the ‘ZimDisk’ appears to be 100Mb; yet when I created an account I found files there that had been created by others … a tad perplexing and perhaps worrying. Otherwise can’t fault it.
Applications: “Zimdesk’s comprehensive range of web applications includes pop3email, file manager, sidebar, RSS, browser, word processor, spreadsheet, calendar, tasks manager, accessories/widgets, web messenger, video conference, media player, Internet radio, web TV, games, zimcommunity, zimblog … and much more.” ZimQuickLaunch allows the addition or removal of applications; though all those listed are already installed.
» http://www.zimdesk.com

webdesk.pngWebdesk
Licence: unknown
Rating: 4 /10
A German webtop, defaulting to German though can switch to English via the Settings tab. Clean, elegant interface.
Applications: A very rudimentary text editor, word-processor, vector drawing program, movie player, RSS reader, etc, but lack of full productivity suite means that it’s not a serious choice at this time.
Disk space: 1Gb
» http://www.webdesk.in

psyche.pngPsych Desktop
Licence: GPL2
Rating: 4/10
Ubuntu-like Linux environment, with Gnome desktop and Mac OS X window decorations.
Applications: Has a web browser, image viewer, music player, text editor, and a couple of games; that apart, too few applications at present to make it viable as one’s webtop of choice: no office suite, no GIMP or similar … not much at all, in fact.
Disk space: not known
» http://desktop.psychdesigns.net

oos.pngiCUBE Online Operating System
Licence: Open Source (proprietary API)
Rating: 3/10
Launched in March 2007 as Browser OS (or BOS), this Javascript-enabled webtop from Austria is very clear based on–and has the default look’n'feel of–old-school Linux (I’m reminded of the antique RedHat 5.1) with the KDE desktop. Some features (e.g. the Display control panel) seem nevertheless designed to make the Windows user feel more at home.
Applications: A rather meagre set of applications, with no way of adding more and no support for extrnal applications. Disappointingly, not even OpenOffice.org is there.
Disk space: not known
» http://www.oos.cc

oos.pngJooce
Licence: unknown
Rating: 4/10
This falls somewhere between a webtop and a virtual hard drive / file-storage / file-sharing facility. File upload proved problematic, with Firefox grinding to a halt as I tried to upload a .odt file. Elegant interface, with a Mac OS X-style dock and Compiz/Beryl-style desktop cube; but eye-candy to the neglect of functionality does not impress me.

» http://www.jooce.com

astranos2.pngAstraNOS
Licence: unknown
Rating: 3 /10
Despite its Mac Os X-like dock, it has a rather clunky look’n'feel
Applications: web browser, mail client, instant messenger, calculator, calendar, and a few games; but, apart from word-processor, no office suite or productivity tools. Not impressed.
Disk space: 1Gb
» http://www.astranos.org

Still to review …:

Virtual-OS

ZK Desktop