YouOS is a web-based operating system prototype created by four college graduates with angel funding. Could this be an early glimpse of what a long rumored GoogleOS might be like?

It’s more likely Google will create some sort of branded Linux variant, but in the meantime it’s worth at least a break time distraction checking out what a web-based OS is like.

Life with a web-based OS
- Not all ‘windows’ have context menus when you right click with the mouse which is strange. I notice the same thing with the Performancing for Firefox blogging extension.
- too much wasted vertical screen real estate used by the browser. I don’t think I could do any long term work inside a traditional browser window.
- a separate developer portal and wiki are available for creating your own installable ‘apps’ on YouOS. These apps are created with javascript, so no need to learn any new languages to get involved; if you can write JavaScript then you can create YouOS modules. There is some kind of scorecard ranking for developer apps so the more popular modules will rise to the top, thus making those apps even more popular.
- as of this writing there are roughly 175 different apps available, everything from Google Spreadsheets to Flickr tag streams to sticky notes and more. Installing them is as easy as choosing from the list and clicking the ‘install’ button. You can demo each app for installing. When an app is installed then it can be easily called from the “stuff” menu along the top left. Just think Windows Start menu, the two are very similar in functionality, although there doesn’t seem to be any way to categorize the apps in stuff (yes/no?). This could become an overpopulated, clumsy mess if categories or tagging aren’t allowed for apps to organize.

The browser isn’t a good place for an OS
My overall usability experience can be summed up in one word: cramped. Not menstrual, but virtual. It reminded me of my wife and I trying to sleep on a small cruise ship bed. I kept wanting to expand the windows beyond the allotted space and argh, welcome to scrollbar city. The YouOS concept at first is amusing to play around with and look at but quickly frustrates. The developer side is well thought out and implemented but overcoming the sardine-like limitations inside a browser window will be too great for most people.

It’s time for this love affair in the browser to end. The browser is good for some things, most notably and unsurprisingly viewing web pages. It’s not good being used as workspace or to replace or emulate an OS. Please don’t ever do something like this, Google. And God help us all if Microsoft thinks this is anything other than a parlor trick.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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