Will systems is the future come with bios enabled browsers or embedded browsers without an OS? At Convea they have been working on creating an web-based office suite which would complement such a device perfectly (this effort is not unique on the web though).
A Web OS in the Making
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Eugenia Loli
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If it won’t work with embedded browsers (only with IE on MS Windows).
oeone.com anyone?
no one will pay for service based OS and Software.
I couldn’t use this…it is really too slow to jump between even contacts and calendar with cable. I couldn’t see anyone paying for this if the speed isn’t increased.
Plus a web based OS means that I wouldn’t need an OS installed on my computer, at least that is what it means to me. I need windows to run this…
If I were running windows, I would already have outlook express to manage my contacts, notepad to write notes, my file manager, etc…
I don’t see this as anything useful in it’s current form, hopefully they won’t continue to tie it to windows, because I don’t see windows users paying for this when everything that comes with convea is free with windows…or is easily downloaded. Although the conferencing stuff and integrated KB could be useful for companies. But it’s still too slow.
What do they use for their word processor? It states it can read .doc files, but it does NOT resemble OO.o at all, in fact, it really looks like an emebedded notepad that’s been pumped up with steroids. If it works as well as it does, then this is a really nice looking product.
Also, I think they changed their browser too much to call it mozilla…I would think it’s a gecko based browser, but it’s definitely not mozilla. It reminds me of opera almost.
They use abiword backend, I think it’s an opensource project developpe by other people…
and for the browser, the look is different, but mozilla is everywhere in oeone.
It doesn’t work with Macs. What is the point of making it web based when it only works on one platform and doesn’t support open standards. Maybe just to slow the computer down so we can spend more on computers.
it won’t work with mozilla. If you’re going to code a web app, make it standards compliant. stupid lazy html coders.
oeone.com uses mozilla as a platform, yes. Much like you can code just about any application today in mozilla, this is much the same.
My problem is, they say their browser is mozilla when really it’s a lot like galeon…based on the gecko engine. It definitely does not look like mozilla (the browser
)
The title here is a little misleading. Having tried the demo, convea is more of a thin client groupware application similar to the phpgroupware effort.
The whole groupware thing is often overlooked by the linux/opensource crowd, but the lack of a viable alternative
to Exchange/Outlook (or Lotus Notes) is one of the main barriers to the adoption of linux in the corporate environment.
Ximian is an outlook like client for linux, but you still
need the exchange server. There are exchange server replacements fo linux (eg. http://www.bynari.net), but you then
need outlook on the client side. In my experience both
outlook and exchange are a pain to manage, and I would love to see a thin client solution that replicates this functionality in a web based fashion. I really like the convea interface, the shared contacts and calendar are there, but I think the file and email sharing needs to be further developed. You really need to be able to create “project” folders where all files and emails relating to a given project will be stored.
Anyway, I work for a small company, and I have lost count at how many times I have been asked to set up shared calendars and contacts for outlook, but I refuse to install exchange and not everyone uses outlook (and I don’t wish to support it). A working groupware solution that works in any web browser would be great, and would move corporate people away from their addiction to outlook.
how hard could it be to make groupware with php + some database
? hmm maybe i will make one muhahahaaaa 
XWT: much more potential than Convea’s apps, and it’s gpl.
START quote:
Anyway, I work for a small company, and I have lost count at how many times I have been asked to set up shared calendars and contacts for outlook, but I refuse to install exchange and not everyone uses outlook (and I don’t wish to support it). A working groupware solution that works in any web browser would be great, and would move corporate people away from their addiction to outlook.
END quote;
FB,
Have you checked out TUTOS (The Ultimate Team Organisation Software; http://www.tutos.org/homepage/index.html)? It uses PHP/MySQL, and it is amazing…eventually my group will be using this.
Michael Lauzon
Founder & Lead Project Manager
InceptionOS Project
http://www.inceptionos.org/
[email protected]
Charlie,
Be that as it may, XWT is only a toolkit for programming apps to use using it’s kit, just like Qt, GTK+, etc. I don’t know if I made sense, because it doesn’t make sense to me what I just said…someone else can unscramble it!
Michael Lauzon
Founder & Lead Project Manager
InceptionOS Project
http://www.inceptionos.org/
[email protected]
http://www.rebol.com call themself the internet OS, i guess it was their focus shift from language to OS
I read the article and tried the Convea application and I must admit, having used the web for years, this was one of the most polished, all round pieces of software I have ever used.
I remember the original 1996 Netscape vision, and it was basically devices and systems being able to access the web and web applications from anywhere and everywhere. I can see the potential in Convea as a building block for better more revolutionary things to come if bios and embedded browsers take off.
Goodluck to them for entering a marketplace dominated by MS and IBM.
On their home page they say:
Convea is the world’s number
one provider of web based
groupware portal solutions.
… while all they offer is some pre-alpha SW that requires M$ IE and is not even remotely platform independed.
This loudmouthed and overbearing appearance reminds me of Lindows.com, somehow.
I remember when REBOL was first appearing in late ’98, early ’99…it looked interesting then, but I haven’t looked at it since then so I don’t know what all the new features and such are; if any.
Michael Lauzon
Founder & Lead Project Manager
InceptionOS Project
http://www.inceptionos.org/
[email protected]
some people like web pages wayyyyyy too much o?o
i mean this is cute… but come on
Thanks for the tip Michael; I had a look at tutos but it still looks a little too unpolished at this point. It’s like a lot of opensource projects, you never know if they’ll ever be completed, or maintained.
I came across SuSE’s Openexchange yesterday which looks interesting, as not only can it replace MS Exchange on the server but it also provides a web based interface with Outlook functionality.
It also looks like Ximian is teaming up with SuSE on some of these things, hopefully something good will result.
This debate about applications that run through your web browser has a strange sense of deja-vu about it. Remember when Java was first gaining widespread attention as a language for the web? There were some very extravagant claims about how your OS would become irrelevant as the apps you run would launch from your browser and be platform-independent. Larry Ellison even had a grand vision of “dumb” network computers that would download and install the software you needed over the web. The fact is, most types of applications simply work better as desktop programs, particulary Office suites. There’s nothing to stop an application being “network-aware” though. If data needs to be shared over the net, it doesn’t have to pass through a web browser.
This idea is not new. But it is being revamped. Microsoft wants to follow this model. The OS you bought will essentially be stupid and just a web browser interface. All apps will be stored somewhere else, at MS servers. You will pay for the time you are using Word, or Outlook. The files will NOT be located on your computer, but on MS servers.
Think I am crazy? Indeed I am not. This idea has been mentioned by none other then Gates himself. Why not? They can keep making improvements to the software and everytime you login to use word, it can be improved.
No I dont like this model, but thats the future.
Remember MS has a monopoly. They have nowhere to get more revenue other then raising prices and getting more strict about use of their software. This is the holy grail.
(post written using Linux thank you very much.)