In my last post, I talked about Goowy. And I mentioned that they should seriously consider allowing third party developers to develop applications for their Web OS.

It’s a repeatedly proven fact – enabling others to develop applications for your platform is a surefire way to success. As more and more developers start writing applications for your platform, it becomes more useful and attractive for a common user. Two most conspicuous examples – Windows and Flash.

While I wish that folk over at Goowy will do this someday, there is another Web OS that already provides an API for developing third party apps – Eye OS. In that sense, Eye OS is the first open Web OS.

Eye OS is Open Source. You can create an account on their public server here or download it and install it on your own server.

Here’s a screenshot of Eye OS in action



Applications

While some applications come preinstalled, there is a variety of applications that you can install later. Word Editor, Spreadsheet, Blogger, Chat, Audio Player, Browser, Calculator, Calendar – here’s the complete list.

A lot of applications can be installed only if you are running eyeOS on your own server and not if you have an account on their public server.

More applications are continuously being added by third party developers. Here’s the API if you want to write your own killer app. You can either use PHP or Flash.

File Sharing

An important aspect of a Web OS is the accessibility of data everywhere. You can keep your files on the server – I’m not sure about the storage limit on their public server. However, there is no folder structure to arrange/categorize the files.

And though I could upload/download files from my computer to Eye OS, I could not see them in the Eye OS viewer – it kept saying “You can’t access this file”. Well, it’s just a minor bug, I think 🙂

Look

A lot of effort has been made to give it a desktop-like look. The theme is configurable – here is a screenshot of the mac theme.

Possible Improvements

Integration with the desktop – to add contacts, all you can do is enter them manually. There is no option to import contacts from other applications or web email sites. Same for other apps like the calendar – it would be nice if it integrates with Outlook calendar for example.

I’d also like to see more applications like To-do lists, rss readers etc. But Eye OS does not have to worry about that. They should be concentrating on providing a smooth development experience. Developers will take care of the rest.