eyeOS review – run a complete desktop in your browser
written on Aug.29, 2009
Imagine being able to sit down at any ordinary computer in an Internet cafe or public library, start up the resident web browser and access your personal desktop – along with your applications, messages, and information – with a click of your mouse button. Then, when you’re done, you simply close the web browser to have all of the documents you’ve just worked on safely stored on your remote server, leaving nothing on the computer you’ve just been working on. This is the goal of the mobile desktop and operating system called eyeOS.
eyeOS is an Open Source Web Desktop Environment. You either install on your computer and access it through a webbrowser at http://yourip:85 or you can use the public eyeOS server.
I really like this idea! Why install an OS on your desktop PC when you simply can have it online? Once you login you get to the desktop. You have a taskbar with a bunch of icons representing the applications installed. You have a kind of file browser where you can create folders and upload files. You have a word editor which looks like TinyMCE which is a WYSIWYG editor. You have a simple calendar, contacts, calculator and send messages to other eyeOS users.
For Internet connectivity you have a very simple RSS reader and a webbrowser. I’m impressed about the webbrowser’s speed – it’s almost as fast as my local one! It evens play YouTube and Google videos without a problem!
What first impresses me is the speed. You can move windows around and applications start without delay when you click the icon. You have several themes to choose between and you can change the wallpaper and more look’s’n feel can be downloaded.
Since it’s a specific OS, it needs specific eyeOS applications. At their public server, 20 additional applications are available. But if this project becomes successful I’m sure this will grow!
Below is a demo: