Is the Internet ready for a WebOS? Are you?
Richard McManus of ZDNet says people are and Marc Orchant also of ZDNet says maybe not. I think it’s not just a question of whether people are ready, it’s a question of "is the Internet ready and capable?" I’m not so sure. You’d think that a web-based OS is the ultimate mobile productivity solution, and at some point, it may well be.
At this point, I’m personally much more comfortable using certain services on the web from within the browser in my computer OS. From a storage and security standpoint, my UMPC is more proven and gives me a warm-fuzzy. Unless I have a complete hard drive failure, my data is readily accessible as long as I can supply power to my device. If a web service (let alone a full web OS) has a hiccup, I’m dead in the water. From DOS attacks to power outages at data centers to something as simple as (and annoying as) browser rendering incompatibilities, there’s a wide array of issues that bring me from 60 to zero in one fell swoop.
The web OS isn’t a bad idea at all for a completely mobile solution, but I’m not comfortable with the underlying infrastructure to place all my bets on it just yet. How about you?
-kct
a WEBOS is a lame idea. First of all, even a dumb terminal would need an OS to connect to the web and handle basic input/output (even though it wouldnt allow a user to install anything locally). This idea shouldnt even be called an OS, an OS doesnt only handle running programs but it also handles things like device connectivity which wouldnt make sense to handle on a remote machine (install a new logitech mouse driver on a remote server in order for my local terminal to use it?).
I think the closest you can get to this idea is AOL where they store all your data on your server and give you a good selection of web apps for calander,browsing,etc. They could possibly change the way it works so it looks more like a desktop (aka the old netscape vision) but I dont think this could be called an OS.
Even for a cell phone, the idea that I wouldnt be able to even scan my address book or emails without being able to connect to the internet doesnt seem like a good idea unless connectivity to the web is 100% guaranteed and at LAN speeds.
I think you are leading to a vision where all your data and programs would be on some remote server and you can go over to your friends house and have your programs/data available to you and also be able to have them backed up so if your terminal dies, you just have to buy a new one without reinstalling everything. This could be delivered through a VMWare style system where things are installed to an encrypted VMWare session that is actually installed and run locally but the VMWare session is actually mirrored on the net somewhere. if you go to a remote desktop, you could either try to run it like a remote desktop or if you want faster performance, you could download the VMWare session and run it natively on that remote terminal.
If we have to ask, then the answer is no.