Heya, I've always had an interest in networking and web design, it's what I do sort of as a hobby for friends/family when I have some spare time. Lately I've been reading about the whole Web 2.0 movement (or lack thereof) and new emerging "techniques" for making websites. Ajax sorta caught my interest, and as usual one link led to another and I started reading about web-based "operating systems" and I found some open source platforms, most weren't too great but I found a fairly nifty one called eyeOS and installed it on my hosting account and let some people give it a try. A web-based OS is simply a "virtual desktop" embedded within a browser session, all files, software, etc is stored on a remote server which means you can access it from anywhere in the world (given that you have an Internet connection). It's actually quite nifty, and I was surprised at its flexibility. Anywho, I thought "why not do a beta of sorts" to let some friends try it out, and since I've been posting around Bit-Tech lately I thought it'd be worthwhile to let a more diverse crowd give it a go. I don't want to write a very long post for those not interested, so I'll just post up the URL: http://www.evoos.net I'm hoping I could get some feedback, ideas, maybe expand it out to a larger user base. Because it's based on an open-source platform it's fairly easy to extend its capabilities. I still have to put up some screenshots though. I started the "project" just a day ago so bear with me Give it a go, who know's maybe it'll interest you. The whole "beta" is free, no popups, ads or anything so no need to worry about that.
Hey guys, thanks for signing up Sorry if there's a delay, I manually setup the accounts so I need to be awake/alive to do it. Although I can automate the process I don't want to flood the system with users who won't bother to try the OS out. As for those wondering why the sign-up asks for your full name, I just input it into the user account to customize your login, that's it. Those who receive an acceptance email, your personal information is removed from the database.
Not much point in signing up on the forums just for a tiny bug report: All the icons created on startup were created on top of each other, not sure if that's a known bug or not.
Hum, could you provide a screen shot maybe? And no, I wasn't aware of this. I'll look into it though. All the accounts are created using the same "template" desktop, and I haven't had any other reports like this so it might have been an isolated occurrence (either way, worth checking out). Thanks.
So what is the difference between this and normal virtual desktops like e.g. Citrix? (Apart from not needing a dedicated Citrix client installed)
Well, as you mentioned there is no need for a client (just a browser) which means you can access your files wherever you go. But primarily, it's free, and far more lightweight than Citrix/XenDesktop from a server point of view. It's fairly easy to port applications over to the platform too. It's really about convenience. XenDesktop (Citrix) also "streams" a standard OS to you, which in certain cases is better but you need to pay for the Citrix license, OS (eg. Windows) license, etc. And while some of those points might be moot to some people, you can always think of it as a virtual desktop that doesn't cost you anything.
ive previosly had a play with eyeos, thought it was neat but dont really have a need for such a thing myself
I can't reproduce the icon problem, must just have been a one-off when I first logged in. There is a weird problem where in the applications window, there's a scroll bar, but I can't scroll. I can't drag it, and clicking the arrow button just makes it jump and then jump straight back. Is there any way to be able to get the calendar to sync with other calendars like Google Calendar? That would be really handy. I've had a play with this, and also iCloud OS, and this seems more responsive. It works in more browsers too
Thanks for the reports -- very handy. I'm glad that you like it so far and that you're actually giving it a go I haven't had any scroll problems personally, both my mouse wheel + the window scroll bars seem to work fine, by the way I am using Firefox 3 as my main browser. Which browser are you using, it may be a browser specific issue? Drag and drop also works fine for me, but I've re-uploaded the javascript files that control the windows, try clearing your cache and relogging to see if it helps. I will look into Google sync'ing today. As another note, Evo-OS is based off eyeOS which is A(GPL)'ed, this means that Evo-OS will also have to follow the AGPL license and I intend to offer the changes I have made back to the community via a SVN I am finishing setting up. If you have some scripting knowledge (PHP) you can easily develop applications if that's your thing. I'll be trying to get some of the eyeOS guides/threads cross-posted so those interested can give it a go. You can create "eyeOS Packages" (just RAR'ed archives) which you can upload from your desktop to the Evo-OS desktop, double-click and it'll install the app (if you're into development). smashie, thanks I got your app -- I just accepted it
I got my login and played around for a while. "Zed, We have a bug" (Men in Black) Actually I found quite a few areas that don't work intuitively and uploads are quite cumbersome. I have been testing software since 1980 and it's fun. What would you suggest as a way to report bugs? PM me and I'll get started replying. I use snag it to get PNG screen caps of buggy things. This OK? I use FF3, IE 7, and Safari to test with. Any other browsers you would like me to try? John
Ack, how stupid of me, I forgot to setup a "Bug Reports" forum. Well it's all up and ready now, just register on the Evo-OS forums (link on the main page) and submit away. It'll simply provide a centralized area to keep track of what isn't working, or isn't working the way it should.
I signed up but didnt get a login yet. Same user name as here. I will be using FF3 & IE7 on Vista and FF3 & Opera on Ubuntu Linux
Looks good to me. Might have to give it a go myself. I'm at work at the moment so would be interesting to see if it worked here or not.
Heya, Thanks for applying... I've gone through and accepted all your applications when I woke up. Just an FYI for those who might not have gotten their e-mail: - The E-Mails will come from webmaster@jasio.net ... admin@evoos.net is forwarded to this account. - All E-Mails are GnuPGP key signed, this might tick off your junk/spam filters so make sure to double check. antiHero, I activated your account 2 days ago but I've resent the e-mail with the login information. I didn't get a bounce back so it must of been caught up in a junkmail filter along the way.
i cant seem to change my password..i have no text fields to change, i also have no text fields to change email address or name
I just checked my account + created a dummy account to see if I can reproduce the issue. I can change the password/e-mail fields without any problems under Right-Click / Preferences / Password. Try logging out + clearing browser cache, the OS has its own internal cache that's purged after a logout. If the problem persists, let me know. It might just be that the fields didn't finish loading.
