Flex & Neat Apps 11 Aug 2006 07:57 am
OS in a Browser: Introducing DesktopTwo
Everyone familiar with Flex knew this was going to happen sooner or later, and here it is, a Flash based web OS known as the DesttopTwo. There is a full blown email client, address book, blog editor, IM client, MP3 player… the list goes on. Apparently there is also integration with Adobe Reader and Open Office, but I got a Java error when I tried to launch them, although I’m impressed enough as it is.
The designers behind DesktopTwo have done an excellent job replicating the desktop environment, but I think their next big challenge is to break away from the traditional desktop mindset. Take Writely for example, their AJAX word processor couldn’t compare with MS Word feature by feature, so they focused on things like realtime collaborative editing and direct publishing to blogs. These things cannot be easily done using Word but they are a snap when you are working in a web environment.
To wrap up my post, I have to say I’m really excited about where DesktopTwo is going. As a student, I have to hop between my home and school computers all day. Having a web desktop can help me store all my work in one central environment. I hope they smooth out the bugs soon so I can start using it productively. I’m also really looking forward to the day when we could just buy a thin tablet loaded with nothing but a browser!!
Need to bring your Flex project up to speed? Zee Yang is a freelance Flex developer with deep understanding of architecture and user experience. You can reach him at zee.yang@gmail.com.
on 11 Aug 2006 at 11:15 am 1.Tmeister said …
Hi there.
I am one of the 4 developers in the flash Area. I can tell you, we dont use Flex to developer desktoptwo. Just Flash with AS2. The UI elements that you say, are the regular flash components modified by us.
cheers!
on 11 Aug 2006 at 11:22 am 2.Zee said …
alright, my mistake. I’ll change my entry so it doesn’t cause any confusions.
on 11 Aug 2006 at 4:46 pm 3.Ryan Stewart on Rich Internet Applications » DesktopTwo said …
[...] I had seen this before, but I noticed that Zee blogged about it over on FlexLive.net so I wanted to also highlight it. DesktopTwo is a very interesting execution of the “webOS/desktop” space, and it’s the kind of thing I am really excited about following. When you dig down, there isn’t much difference between DesktopTwo and Goowy, but DesktopTwo presents itself with a more traditional OS look and feel. I use Goowy every day (guys, email filters? Please? Do I need to pay?), but I am also keeping a very close eye on DesktopTwo. I have an email out to them so I hope I can talk to the team and get some more info on the product. So far no bite. [...]