DIGIT-ARC read-only archive · snapshot: July 23, 2026

A Web Based Operating System - eyeOS

21 posts · originally from https://geek.digit.in/community/threads/a-web-based-operating-system-eyeos.42290/

subratabera
subratabera Original post #1
Nov 28, 2006 at 12:41 AM
A free (open source) web operating system that handles a web office, PIM, games, etc, and can be installed in any server with PHP. It entirely runs inside the browser. Can be downloaded from eyeos.org...It can be also tested from *eyeos.org/demo.

*eyeos.org/img/screens/p1.png

Source
M
Nov 28, 2006 at 1:01 AM
Nice but not so great as YouOS.
Hope they bring it to that level soon.
subratabera
Nov 28, 2006 at 1:04 AM
Ya, but its interface is a little cleaner than YouOS.
tuxfan
tuxfan #4
Nov 28, 2006 at 7:04 PM
Web-based OS? How to reach that site? With a machine that runs on some other OS!! :roll:
M
Nov 28, 2006 at 7:10 PM
Well it's sounds so stupid as of today. But, I feel we'll see this same thing will bring about a big change in computers industry maybe a couple of decades down the line.
kalpik
kalpik #6
Nov 28, 2006 at 7:57 PM
@tuxfan: Look into the distant future. Every app stored on a server. Right now every computer has a different configuration. Not all computers can run everything. But in case of web based OS, the client just needs a browser. So computers could be manufactured with standard specifications and everything would run on the server!
subratabera
Nov 28, 2006 at 8:43 PM
And also it will eliminate the need for regular maintenance, updates, backups, softwares installations, carrying your laptop etc.
tuxfan
tuxfan #8
Nov 29, 2006 at 11:58 AM
kalpik said:
@tuxfan: Look into the distant future. Every app stored on a server. Right now every computer has a different configuration. Not all computers can run everything. But in case of web based OS, the client just needs a browser. So computers could be manufactured with standard specifications and everything would run on the server!

But the browser again will need some OS! Isn't it?

Of course, the local OS can be pretty basic with storage, browsing and net-wroking rest all online. But somehow this idea doesn't fascinate me too much :(
kalpik
kalpik #9
Nov 29, 2006 at 12:20 PM
Yes the local OS could be something as simple as your series 40 nokia phone :D
JGuru
JGuru #10
Nov 29, 2006 at 12:29 PM
@Tuxfan, Yeah definitely the browser runs on top of the O.S. But the funtionality of the
O.S can be kept to the minimum. If we can have a Server-centric O.S, this increases
the load on the Server!!

I look at the future this way:

In the future we'll be able to integrate almost all the applications into browser.
We can view Office suite, listen to music, record, burn CD/DVD. And what not.
All the things can be done inside the browser!!
subratabera
Nov 29, 2006 at 12:40 PM
In the near future an OS with a browser can also be fabricated on a piece of hardware which can be very cheap and with the help of Gbps broadband speeds can be very very fast also. Everything will become network oriented. We don't have to upgrade our hardware regurlarly to install new OS(e.g. VISTA), play games etc. Life will be much easier...
M
mehulved #12
Nov 29, 2006 at 2:05 PM
kalpik said:
Yes the local OS could be something as simple as your series 40 nokia phone :D
A series 40 phone connectable to a monitor and high speed net connection and whoa you have a full fledged computer.
Satissh S
Satissh S #13
Nov 29, 2006 at 4:20 PM
I beg to differ, the basic yet the most fundamental aspect of an operating system is your never ever supposed to feel it. Actually, speaking radically nobody really uses an operating system, we use programs on our computers.

The OS itself should help these programs run while itself being as unobtrusive to the cause as possible. What the operating system does is initialises hardware, allocates resources to the programs, helps locate the files in the disk and help these programs to connect to the net.

Also the most primitive definition of the kernel (the core of the OS) is that it helps interact with the hardware thereby making it easy for programmers to write programs.

The so-called web OS doesn't fulfill any of these, so while its justifyable to call it maybe something like a desktop shell such as GNOME/KDE that can be run from a browser, calling it an Operating System is just ridiculous.

As an Aside, have a look at this,
*validator.w3.org/check?uri=*eyeos.org/demo

;-)
M
mehulved #14
Nov 29, 2006 at 4:31 PM
But the web OS is interacting with the hardware na, at the server end. It's just that the client end it doesn't do much interaction.
Something like a dumb terminal.
mediator
mediator #15
Nov 29, 2006 at 4:42 PM
I guess its like a GUI counterpart of UNIX systems!
C
candyman #16
Nov 29, 2006 at 5:42 PM
I love this thread, i think the idea is good if not GREAT, think about the 99$ computer project, where all of the 3'rd world countries can get a computer so small in parts and software needs that it would be perfect to produce anywhere.

Less hardware and software = poweruse = better enviroment as well
tuxfan
tuxfan #17
Nov 29, 2006 at 7:58 PM
Well, in a "web-OS world" bandwidth requirements will increase many times over! So in India if web-pages take so long to load :roll: think what will happen when you try to open a 20MB image file. :( I am not too hopeful about the bandwidth scenario in India even after 5 years!
desertwind
Nov 30, 2006 at 10:27 AM
"Browser based OS" (I call it like this) doesn't inspire me as well.

Satya: Oh you don't have to validate each and every page you come across!!! :)
kumarmohit
Nov 30, 2006 at 11:23 AM
How on earth can it be an OS? An OS has three parts - Shell, Kernel and HAL, This is more or less a web based Shell not a complete OS.
subratabera
Nov 30, 2006 at 1:28 PM
kumarmohit said:
How on earth can it be an OS? An OS has three parts - Shell, Kernel and HAL, This is more or less a web based Shell not a complete OS.
I think the concept of the OS will change in the near future...
Satissh S
Satissh S #21
Nov 30, 2006 at 7:17 PM
@riyaz: hi :), has become a habit ;-)

I think the concept of the OS will change in the near future...
No way mate. Maybe the way people do things with it might change but the OS concept itself wont.