Cloudo is the new Xindesk and looks like shaping up to be a good looking WebOS, if and when it launches.
Cloudo was previously part of Xindesk, a company that was promising a WebOS and Widget platform that we’ve mentioned in passing previously. The widget platform is now known as “Widget Plus” with the WebOS taking the Cloudo name.
Cloudo offers standard fare in terms of a WebOS, including file hosting, virtual desktop widgets, applications, email and contact management and eventually a full suite of programs you’d expect from a regular desktop Operating System. Where it excels is in appearance; offerings like AjaxWindows have a touch of ugly about them, Jooce and EyeOS try to be original. Cloudo gets the visuals right first time around, with a high quality visually appealing standard layout. Better still, if you don’t like it, Cloudo comes complete with a big range of themes, including other operating systems including various flavors of Windows, Mac and Linux so users can make themselves feel right at home.
I remember the first time I saw Cloudo when it was Xindesk and I was impressed then, but here in lies the problem. There was mention of Xindesk soon launching in the comments on this post in February 2007. When I first was pitched Xindesk in the middle of last year I was told it would be ready by the end of 2007, early 2008. Cloudo’s current status: they’re inviting more people into the alpha this week and its current release schedule has it being ready to open its doors in the last quarter of 2008. This is a product with potential that if it gets off the ground could well convert people to the cloud, however we might all get significantly older waiting for the launch, and Cloudo could be passed function wise and aesthetically by more nimble competitors while we are waiting.
Loads pretty fast. Color reminds people of the Windows Vista.. What’s the mobile phone doing there?
Repeat after me: there is no WebOS.
The web is the OS. We do not need another layer.
Cheers
Michael
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http://viibee.com – online dating is fun again
if you have a virtual desktop with you personal data and settings saved on a “cloud” and you can access it from every place on the earth on any computer or device that have an internet connection and a browser, you just cannot call this a layer,
and yes we need “for now” a primary Base Operating System, like windows, but in the future most probably we will have a complete Base OS by Web and the servers will give us a hardware power and not just aplications but the entire PC by web, imagine! you will have you PC, your desktop, your files on a single TV with an Internet connection!
you even will not need a physyial PC, or a normal PC, you will just need a device with internet connection, like a netbook.
This technology already exist! see the OnLive,
they are making a server for games like crysis for everyone play on a PC or TV in realtime is just like streeming a video but interactive video, you can play crysis on ULTRA HIGHT SETTINGS on your shity netbook!!!
do you think this is to advanced and to new for us, think again, this technology idea comes from the year 1995, so do you still think this is another layer? well…
this is not very well implemente yet, and its lok like “another layer” but soon will be your technology, you know… we must folow the evolution.
Say with me: Holy Shit!
Actually I see that eyeOS is Open Source, that’s pretty important, since it has a dev community (I saw they have a section in well known downloads sites, read their blog).
I believe that Open Source in a web os solution is the most important, since I want my data in my server, not in anyone’s else server!
this-is-useless
Repeat
this-is-useless
this whole webos seems like a misconceived effort (or at least misnamed) effort
- I still need my desktop OS? right? just to run the browser I guess
- I feel like I am already using a desktop in the sky, it just multiple tabs/windows in browser and not multiple windows in a single html doc
@5
It’s more like they’ve no choice but to continue the WebOS “misnomer” (to refer to the client side?), for Microsoft has kinda commandeered the use of CloudOS to refer to the server side stuffs — http://blogs.zd...icrosoft/?p=394
This is a very solid technical platform, which in part is based on the groundbreaking work of Hakan Bilgin on Challenger (http://www.challenger.se), so it’s top notch all the way through, so you might want to take a close look on that.
“this-is-useless
Repeat
this-is-useless”
You have to understand that the people they’re aiming for are people that have no computer skills. It’s useless to you and me, but it won’t be useless to ignorant people in an internet cafe.
They’re hoping that those people will eventually become hooked and pay out. Or that the Web OS will eventually integrate into the person’s home desktop once they buy a machine. Think Adobe AIR which is soon coming out of beta.
Where as you have to have several accounts at Youtube, flickr, imageshack, gmail ect… to manage media if you have no machine now, with a virtual desktop you could centralize into 1 account.
I said it once, I will say it again, the person which uses a Flash VNC to make a service, then offers people chroot X Desktops on Ubuntu available from the web will WIN hands down.
/home/users/internetCafeUsers/BobbyFlashVNC_Client/chroot/usr/bin
http://www.when...lient-in-flash/
It would be so much easier too, then trying to abstract a new Desktop type. Plus they could run windows apps with Wine remotely in their sandbox.
That’s the kind of project I would invest in.
An Ubuntu cluster with about 1000 chroot VNC clients per machine, like virtual hosting but for VNC. That would be powerful enough for people to stay on for a lifetime.
The implementation is too hard for the skill level of programmers most of these companies hire though in my opinion. Of course I could do it.
Chris, I’m with you on a chrooted x desktop option as being far more usable and practical than these ‘namby pamby’ flash or ajax based so called WebOS’ that seem to be overwhelming us.
I’ve been using the service provided by the people over at Desktop On Demand who have (well until next week at least) have given me access to a remote Gnome desktop via an NX client that has worked brilliantly for me for nearly a year now. It’s a shame they’re closing their Beta service next week (although I think they are relaunching in March – according to an email I got from them).
And then there’s Cosmopod and Ulteo who have the right idea.
I just can’t see what real value these browser based services are going to give. I’m sure someone will put me straight though
@9
https://desktopondemand.com
Desktop on demand looks ok, but it looks like a regular VNC Desktop client.
I’m saying somebody should make one with flash VNC so you can access your secure desktop from anywhere.
If you could merge the Flash VNC with desktop on demand. That would be like peanut butter and chocolate.
I’d even use it. Just in case everything in the office suddenly blows up.
The services you refer to aren’t exactly open for developers and you can’t install your own apps on most of them.
This may have changed since last I was trying those many remote desktops myself.
I have accounts on almost everyone of them.
A webos has a different kind of flexibility and simplicity to offer, which, if used right, will make or break the thing.
Also, it’s funny that the same people attacking the webos idea are the same people hailing Google’s online services, when the two are really the same thing in regard to useability.
I mean by that, that Gmail can’t beat a ‘real’ email app written in C, no more than a webos app can – the conditions are identical, technically, arent’ they?
Still a lot of people prefer Gmail.
So, it’s really a question of what the vision is – and if it’s about competing with a real OS, it’s dead in the water – but I dont think that is the general idea here.
- This is a webcentric project.
@2
Exactly. No one will ever, i repeat EVER, use something like this as a replacement.
People have to have a local OS. With local apps. For those long cold nights when your connection is down.
Please stop making them.
mimicking desktop behaviors isn’t necessarily good for such “online application centrals”. There maybe better ways to do it. And the browsers performances degrade when too many apps are loaded and the threshold is a lot lower than apps on desktops. I even feel iGoogle is a bit too slow when I just need a single task done. Too much overhead (for me).
especially the clock widget. IT’s COMPLETELY useless. Why do I have to have a widget like this while I am on a computer. It’s right down at the corner. But it’s a good way to show off the widgets in this platform, which I think is unwise.
Mikael, I’m sure you researched your market and have clear ideas of where you want to take your WebOS but as you can read by the majority of the responeses here you and all the other WebOS’s ‘appear’ to be doing nothing more than trying to reinvent the wheel.
From my POV WebOS’s offer no more value than personalised portal pages such as Netvibes and Pageflakes whereas access to a real but virtualised desktop environment like DOD and Cosmopod do have both an immediate attraction and benefit, personally speaking.
I do accept that even these solutions are not absolutely perfect and realise there are compromises even to be had with solutions like them. However I do think because they come out of quite matured and widely developed technologies there is perhaps a better chance of them becoming a closer fit than something purely browser based.
I played with Desktoptwo, for example, a fair bit before DOD came along and while it was great to how well they managed to translate the desktop look and feel I still couldn’t help feeling unsatisfied because I couldn’t really do what I expected to with their online desktop.
For a while I had some involvement with a UK startup that did look at a WebOS offering of their own and the more time we spent looking at the whole thing the less it became clear as to who and what purpose we were trying to serve.
Anyway, I’m not going to add any more on this but do wish you well with Cloudo.
“Mikael, I’m sure you researched your market and have clear ideas of where you want to take your WebOS but as you can read by the majority of the responeses here you and all the other WebOS’s ‘appear’ to be doing nothing more than trying to reinvent the wheel.”
Oh, I’m not involved with any webos..
You mistake me for someone else.. the company I’m involved with is into widgets and sering those with on_the_fly xml databases..
Wow… an OS in the cloud!
Can I transfer MP3s to my iPod with this? Can I load pictures from my digital camera with this? Can I format an external hard drive? Can I burn a CD? Can I edit home digital video? Can I watch a DVD? Can I install new codecs and experience any media I want with this?
No??? Then it really isn’t an OS then, is it. Knock off the hype. OSes provide access to and management of hardware and its resources. This is a freakin’ “shell” at best… not an OS.
For users who only really need e-mail, an office-like suite and a browser, this would work well. It looks like the next evolution in Google Docs.
Good luck to Cloudo. How about G.ho.st, the Global Hosted Operating SysTem at http://G.ho.st – also graphically strong and we have taken a different approach by embedding lots of leading third-party Web apps…
Zvi
www. i-guide .ro
Referenced at http://www.dane...m/post/27158037
Hello all,
I think this is great! I know… completely contradicting most of you “tech people” out there but think about this from a logical stand point.
lets start with the basics… iGoogle. Many of you probably use it or if I know most of you techies out there like I think I do you have been curious and have used it just for the fun of it and maybe made a widget or two. iGoogle… even in it’s simplest form is a Web “OS” if you will. Let me explain…
1. A developer has an idea, uses the tools given to him by google and makes that widget or what I like to call “a simple program”.
2. The user finds your simple program and adds it, or google’s version of installing an application.
To me that seems like the basics of an OS right there, just you don’t get all those hoops of fire involved with developing and deploying an app using windows or apple.
Now this new Web “OS” allows people to develop applications and deploy them and users install them, the difference is you can access this anywhere with any computer that has an internet connection. Effectively making your computer a dumb pipe (think of it as the cell phone networks and the iphone hmmm?)
I think the opportunities with this could be vast, and maybe it’s just because I am a sixteen year old kid who doesn’t understand jack… but I believe I do, and I believe you tech people need to realize the full potential of this and how it could revolutionize the industry… but heck… it is just a sixteen year old nerd talkin so what does he know?
I would explain more but I am tired of typing and have to get to work. Debate amongst yourselves about the possibilities. Feel free to email me at holdenpage@gmail.com if you wish to further this discussion with me (spammers here we come)
o and Ghost…. simplify your register process and your terminology… I understand it and I think the product is magnificent but average joe isn’t gonna care if you don’t provide quick and concise results.. my two cents though
O and steve brown…. forget this part… I have four words for you… Adobe Air and Flex…. Do some research before you talk.
Cloudo looks nice but Desktoptwo is the best one. It also has a slick interface (built in Flash) and doesn’t take a year to launch (I tried some of the others like Jooce and Ghost and they took too long). Plus it had certain features like drag-and-drop between applications. I also like that it’s open source – they have a FOSS community called Sapodesk where you can download everything (just did and it’s pretty cool)
I also think that, while there’s obviously a great deal of disagreement, that these webtops will eventually take root and be used by many people. It’s merely taking all of these web apps that are everywhere and bringing them under the same roof and within the same UI. What’s so wrong with that? They’re gaining popularity in my native Korea and we’re way ahead of the curve with web apps.
Cloudo launches instantly, desktoptwo doesn’t.
Even wigetplus launches under 4 seconds.
Just tried desktoptwo and it really sucked balls, some of the apps are java, and some not, and some open in a new browser window which completely throws the overall design out the window, since the new windows are just native browser windows, which collide big time with the desktoptwo’s other apps and their design.
This isn’t a webos, this is a odd collection of apps thrown together without really fitting together.
Keren… menarik bacaannya
Salam
wondering how that thing is going right now..?