Web OS

If you are following this or any other Web2.0 blog you are probably aware of the term Web OS. If not, let me briefly shed some light into the matter.

The Web OS is like a normal OS (operating system) but its entire infrastructure is located on many remote servers that you can access at any time you want via a browser as long as you have an Internet connection. Many people take the concepts behind the Web OS too literally so they come up with ridicules solutions that serve no purpose at all. In that respect neither Google Custom Home Page nor Microsoft Live Custom Home Page is the beginning of the Web OS. The Web OS is not a desktop environment so don�t even think about starting the next AJAX site that has useless features like a calculator, a RSS reader, a movie player, an audio player, etc.

In this article I am going to introduce the principles of the Web OS as I see it in my mind. The ideas and concepts presented here are not widely accepted so don�t take my word for granted. I start my introduction with something as simple as the following:

The Web is already an OS and GNUCITIZEN is one of your application vendors. Google and Microsoft are application vendors as well.

Your boot loader is your browser. The browser is also responsible for launching any application you want to interact with. On the top of the browser there are many abstraction layers that help the Web OS to function. The more versatile your browser is the more things you can do.

Different vendors provide different applications. However, the Web OS allows for these applications to communicate with each other the same way processes do in conventional operating systems. Web developers call these inter-web-application communication mechanism “service”. Applications that use services are called Mashups.

The Web OS is not user friendly. In order to interact with it you need to get used to remembering tones of passwords and secret questions because vendors want to have your attention for longer. However, if you have a powerful and versatile browser such as Firefox, you can reduce this burden and start enjoying your life more.

Smart people use smart browsers because they know that they can use them to customize the Web OS as they wish. The Linux kernel is like that for conventional operating system. If you don�t like the way your system works you can change it. Firefox seams to follow the Linux kernel steps. If you don�t like the way this page looks or you want to mashup two applications you really like you can use a Greasemonkey script or a browser extension.

Some vendors think that they can get away with crappy applications that follow no standards. This is almost like writing a Microsoft Windows application with GTK or Motif or default Java Swing. You know what I am talking about: the GUI does not fit into the environment. This is why vendors should concentrate on how to make their application more W3C compatible. Google is one of the worst/biggest Web OS application vendors. Look at their website.

Some vendors create Web Applications that mimic your desktop environment and call them Web OS. That�s wrong. These applications are as much operating systems as Adobe Acrobat Reader 8 and Emacs are� or otherwise, they are not. If you like this approach you might as well be comfortable with cygwin X server in a window as your prime desktop environment.

The Web OS is affected by viruses and worms the same way your desktop is. This is where GNUCITIZEN and HA.CKERS work becomes very valuable. The most destructive issues with Web OS Applications are XSS, CSRF, XML Injection, SQL Injection and many others. The first entirely Web OS based worm is called Samy and it attacked MySpace in October 2005.

The father of the Web OS is Sir. Tim Berners-Lee. He started the Web although what you see today is a result of our mutual affords. Sir Berners-Lee is currently working on Semantic Web technology which will bring the next generation of Web Applications and Vulnerabilities to reality.

The Web OS is what we see today and those who understand it call it just “the Web”.

I am a web hacker and an architect of Web Hacking Software. My passion is Web OS vulnerability research. My browser is an open window to a world of vast electronic streams, I browser through everyday. I dive into the ocean of the Web building infrastructures out of software agents, web applications and human beings. The Web OS of the future is the Web of today but one number up.

Comments

Delixe responds:

What do you make of projects like the parakey project then? http://www.parakey.com.

pdp responds:

I am not sure what parakey will be like but from what I read I get the feeling that it is something like remote service for storing and sharing your files, which IMHO is not very interesting since companies like Google and Microsoft provide that feature anyway.

The big question is what JUL will be like and why the author wants to implement another User Interface Language.

The Mozilla kid behind parakey mentioned on a article, I’ve read long time ago, that users need to install a software on their machine in order to use the service. This is exactly what Google Desktop does. Once the parakey software is in your system you can share files, upload, delete and do all sorts of other things.

Now this may sound cool at first but it is not that difficult to do something like this with a few scripts and .NET. Here is a simple scenario. Make a REST service with PHP that allows users to upload content if their credentials are right. Download one of these opensource Windows-SVN shell integration tools and add the functionality to perform background file upload and update via this PHP service. Then add a nice AJAX interface on the server that hosts the PHP service so that users can upload and manage their files when the software is not installed on their systems. This is parakey for Windows. Repeat the same process for all other operating systems. Some of these SVN Shell integration tools are already cross-platformed so it will be even easier to write something like this.

If this is a Web OS then Google did it long time ago because they do allow you to upload pictures with PICASA and manage documents with Google Docs. GMAIL can be used as a remote storage service and I believe that there is already a tool that can upload any file on the desktop to your GMail account by clicking on a single item from your shell context menu.

If everybody who is developing this kind of service thinks that this is an OS, than how many OSes will emerge in the near future. Virtually everyone is capable of building one.

This is not an OS. This is a service in the OS. The OS is only one and it is called the WEB. And enjoy working with it, especially when I have all nice SHELL SCRIPTS (GREASEMONKEY SCRIPTS) that allow me to do various cool stuff.

CodeoramaOS responds:

A brazilian WebOS… CodeoramaOS, please visit…

Ruz responds:

What features should a web os contain to make it comprehensive? Is online office the only standard requirement? google has a notebook feature, edeskonline has a cool accounts and tax feature, any more unique ones?

pdp responds:

Ruz, the Web OS is already here. The OS features are on the Web.

RedDroid responds:

I have found this NeuroKernel. I think it is what would be a real network operating system. Its entire desktop is written with its API and SDK which means it can function without a desktop. You all should it check out. There is demo too.

http://www.neurodna.com/

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