Cloud works on the Past

EyeOS Cloud Operating System

While cloud operating systems seems like an idea of the future, google was not the first to bring into reality. Eyeos was the first operating system and they have been working on the cloud for well over three years. The operating system is very simple to install [requires only php5 and apache] and you can use all basic applications like notepad, office docs, games, explorer and a few others. Eyeos is open source software and is free to use. Other notable projects include icloud and GOS.

Google Chrome OS Project

When google launched its own cloud based operating system, more light was shed on the idea of cloud operating system and now there is more competition. Software giants Big blue is all set into the game and is said to be working on cloud based operating system project. IBM has also shown expertise in cloud based applications with LotusLive Cloud based suite and also spiced it up with inotes, which has raised some interesting insights too.

IBM teams up with EyeOS

IBM Teams up with EyeOs

Last week, IBM joined hands with EyeOs and announced plans of incorporating eyeOs in all Z machines. System Z machines are primarily used by large enterprises and this stands as a big market for the cloud based operating system. This eventually places EyeOs in a successful state and promises a lot of potential market and also revenue though IBM.

Will you use an operating system out of a browser? Does it offer full power? How can cloud applications become better?

Trivia: All 25 of the 25 leading banks in the world use IBM Mainframes for some kind of processing.

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If you are a mac user, you would love the power to search your mac as you type with the help of spotlight or the powerful quick silver. The spotlight is integrated into the operating system and is one of the fastest ways of searching a mac, though quick silver offers much more power.

The Third Option from Google – Google Quick Search Box

The google quick search box, as QSB in short, does the same thing – It lets you search your mac and also perform google searches on your keyword. There are additional features like searching for a contact or twitter or the weather, according to google mac blog. Google already has a similar version in the form of google desktop, which introduced similar features. Google QSB seems to have integrated all of them.

Access to Google Search

I am a power google user [about 50 searches everyday as per google web history] and I always have a browser open. Even in case, I do not have a browser open or have many applications cluttered in my workspace, I use the google search from dashboard widgets to access google search.

Mac dashboard widgets for quick search

Google Search on Spotlight – Spotlight Plugins

Spotlight is a powerful tool and there are loads of addons for spotlight including a google search tool. This tool is freeware and is also a staff pick. There are loads of other addons to spotlight, which make it even more powerful, native and also faster.

Reinventing the Wheel?

Take a look at the results produced for a common few terms in all the three interfaces. Google quick search box sounds like it has clearly reinvented the wheel, unless I have failed to see something Big in it.

Spotlight Search

Google Quick Silver bar

Quick Silver for power users

Download Google quick search box.

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Advertise

There is no point in having an App, if nobody knows about it – Is there? So, you need to advertise on websites, but you need to be careful – there is no point in advertising on a site about Weight Loss, when your application is a Car Racing App. You have to think about a couple of questions, Who is your main audience? Is it aimed people who are losing weight, or is it aimed at people who are into Cars and Racing? You then have to think about another question, What websites would these people visit? Would they visit a Weight Loss website, a Formula 1 website or an Online Auction Site? Think about the most likely sites that they would go to, then start advertising on them! However, you will have to create the advert yourself, and you will have to agree on page impressions per month etc, with the owner of the site.

Make a Website

This will give people the opportunity to read a little more into the app and see what you, the developer, is planning for future updates. This website should also have a ‘Contact Me’ section, where people can give their ideas for updates, and where they can ask you questions. Yet again, this is advertising!

Be willing to lose money, to gain money

So, have you ever had an Application Reviewer email you? No? Well, maybe, you need to have a way to get in touch with you you first! When you have done this, people will be contacting you all of the time! This tip means that if an App Reviewer does come along, and they would like an Application Code so that they get the App for free (for reviewing purposes only!), don’t say ‘No, go and buy it yourself, if you want it that badly’. Say ‘Yeah, sure!’. This means that your app will have a whole post written about it, people will read it, and hopefully download the app! Yet more advertising for your application!

Make a Lite Version of your App

Most people don’t want to pay a lot of money for one app that could be rubbish! So, give them a ‘lite version‘ of your application, this means that they get to try one or two levels of your app, in a free download from the App Store. Many companies like ngmoco who made the successful application ‘Rolando‘, have made a lite version. Yeah, but I’m losing money here – I’ve slaved over two levels, but I’m giving them away for free, that’s not right, surely? OK, maybe you’re right, but, in the long term you will make money – especially if the two levels that you give away are very enjoyable!

Take time and care over descriptions of the Application

Imagine that your application is called ‘Car Racing’. In the description (especially on the App Store), don’t say ‘The name of the App says it all, you race cars.’. Say something like ‘This fun and immersing game lets you race around the suburbs of towns. You battle against your rival gangs, to see who is the ‘top dog”. See how much more interesting the app sounds? You’ve only added a couple of sentences to the description! If you can, include some quotes from reviewers (obviously, don’t pick bad quotes!). Basically, all you need to do is ‘big yourself up’, obviously, though, you have to tell the truth, and not exaggerate on things.

Excellent! A lot of people have downloaded my App, what do I do now?

Don’t update your app, for the sake of updating!

If you think that your application needs updating, then make the update worth downloading, however, if there is a critical bug in your application, then make an update especially for that bug, as this will make the users time using the application, far more enjoyable. Also, make the update descriptions in-depth, don’t just say ‘Bug Fix’, say something like ‘Critical Bug Fix: This bug would make the Application Freeze’ – people are interested in what the update does.

Continue to advertise!

You can never have enough app downloads!

So, what do you have to do, basically, to get more users? Advertise! This is the most important point of them all, if you don’t advertise, no-one will know about your application, therefore, no-one will download it.

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Mozilla Bespin

Mozilla is counting high on the developers themselves to build the editor to match their needs and still make the editor as powerful as possible. In the new releases, mozilla was found to talk of taking bespin to the levels of vi and emacs in terms of power. It goes without saying that accessbility from any platform or device will be a requirement for this tool.

Bespin is in very early prototype and is currently at 0.1, but is attracting a lot of crowd, primarily developers. The demo features a basic editor, with all mandatory features including syntax highlighting. Its been just a week since the project was unveiled and already 50 bugs have been reported by developers around the globe. In a more optimistic view, several of these bugs were accompanied with patches and is taken the hopes of mozilla to the next level. There are also talks of integration with Eclipse, the most relied platform of developers. 

Bespin relies on HTML 5 technology, which means that it will work only on the latest browsers, safari 4 and Mozilla 3 (It was surprising to see safari 3 being left out. Internet explorer users may expect Bespin to work after release of IE14 ).

Mozilla Bespin Cloud Computing

Still in traces of its prototype (you can try bespin demo here), Bespin already has features of cloud computing, which will allow you to share the file you are editing with other users on the internet. Mozilla has also integrated the ubiquity styled command line features into the web editor, which deserves loads of appreciation.

While a tool for cloud computing looks a good idea today, a web editor might be lack a lot in responsiveness, interactions with operating system and other applications, and also might not be able to take advantage of keyboard shortcuts to the fullest extent. Mozilla sure must have plans for settling it out. I wish mozilla brought out a desktop editor, instead of this web editor. I am sure, it would be more powerful and accepted by a wider audience. Is a web editor as powerful as a desktop editor?

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GOS is a debian flavor linux and runs on enlightenment environment. It is extremely similar to Ubuntu, which runs on Gnome environment. If you have used ubuntu before, you can use GOS very comfortably. (sudo apt-get works here too… ). The style of the OS resembles more of a mac, and is equipped with a baby dock, dashboard like widgets (which makes up the gadgets in GOS gadgets) and a tiger wallpaper in green. It is relatively lighter than gnome, and heavier than xfce environment.

GOS 3 gadgets desktop

Gos has also packed with it the google family of software, like google gadgets, google gears, gmail, google docs, google calendar besides additional software such as gimp, open office, skype and wine.

GOS - Linux styled like a mac

Installation and system requirements

Since ubuntu is the base software, much of the installation procedure remains the same, although a live CD is not supported. You can download GOS from the official GOS website. The system requirements for GOS is lenient than that of Ubuntu with around 196MB as the minimum memory required for booting and installation.

GOS Gadgets on your desktop

THE GOS AS GOOGLE OS

GOS was originally called google OS, obviously the name would infringe a few trademarks. The ubuntu based operating system had the ‘g’ from google logo as its logo and a boatload of google software. Google did take a look at the operating system and gave the green flag, before GOS was officially announced. Though this might sound like the search engine giants are more focussed on web software, Google could be developing its own operating system. All operations in Google labs are however clandestine and never leaked out.

GOS - Software

MOZILLA PRISM FOR GOOGLE SOFTWARE

Mozilla prism is used very effectively to create gmail and google calendar as separate applications. Google Chrome was released a little later than GOS (google os) and hence GOS has got firefox as its primary browser. Other frequently used google software like youtube, blogger, google news, google maps, google reader, google products and google finance are also integrated in the dock using prism.

Evolution mail is replaced with thunderbird, a move most people would appreciate. In a good leap, GOS went that extra step to provide skype and wine packaged with the operating system.

GOS PERFORMANCE

On a test “burn and crash linux distribution experiment”, GOS was installed on the same machine using the same RAM and so were ubuntu 8.04 and kubuntu 7.10, puppy linux. The operating system performance was measure with boot time, memory consumed with no applications running and with firefox running with three tabs showing up google homepage. The results will be published soon. Here is a glimpse of the system memory performance with no applications running other than the screenshot application.

GOS System performance

GOS System memory performance with firefox running with 3 tabs is indicated by the peaks in the right hand side of the bar.

Google surprised the whole world with the launch of Google Chrome browser, Is Google operating system being engineered at google labs?

If you an Ubuntu user and fighting with RAM, you might want to consider GOS, because it is lighter, though you may miss a few gnome based applications.

If you are a mac and got a additional desktop running linux, GOS is the best linux for mac users. The dock, the window styles, window buttons on the left and many other features align with the mac user.

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