I have seen the words Cloud Operating System (Cloud OS), Web OS, and web desktop in blog posts and news articles recently. With the way the terms are kicked around one could easily assume that they mean the same thing. This led me on a quest of find out a bit more. After reviewing Wikipedia for the terms, there are a relationship between the terms along with differences. ‘Cloud (operating system)’ was defined as a “browser-based operation system created by Good OS LLC.” The idea was to provide a way to perform simple tasks without a full operating system. The next term I checked was Web operating system (webOS). The first thing that jumps out at me is the warning at the top of the page cautioning the reader not to confuse Web operating system with Online OS and Web desktop. The article point to webOS as a “network services for Internet scale distributed computing.” The article also points out that term webOS is being used broadly and with many different meanings. The term Online OS is defined as a “web desktop written in JavaScript using Ajax.” “It provides basic services such as a GUI, a virtual file system, access control management and possibilities to develop and deploy applications online.” The last term I looked was Web desktop (webtop) which Wikipedia defines as “a desktop environment embedded in a web browser or similar client application.”
Advantages of a Cloud OS
- Mobility – Access your desktop anywhere you have connectivity
- System Management – Software, drives and patches can be applied to all users at the same time.
- Collaborative – easy to share files with other people, devices and services
- Scale – easy to add additional resources like storage
Disadvantages of a Cloud OS
- Speed – All the resources are shared among the desktop
- Connectivity – You have to be connected to use the desktop
- Bandwidth – Your connection to the Internet is not always 100% reliable or available
Cloud OS / Webtop offerings