Recently I started testing on-line operating systems to see what merits using cloud computing can have on my productivity.
One of these systems is Eye-OS, which comes in two flavours, 1.9 Stable (Classic), which this article is based on, and 2.x Beta, which appears to be geared towards social networking.
Eye-OS is a very simple, intuitive interface with clear icons and a similar feel to most popular OS desktops. There is a nice look about Eye-OS, muted colours so not to distract the eye and a kind of corporate feel to the integration of the other applications, and it work under both Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux running under Firefox.
Once you log on to Eye-OS the system 'boots' and presents you with a few icons on the desktop, an address book, Calender RSS Feeder and a Trash Can.
The desktop background can be changed via the system icon on the menu bar, and also do things such as alter your profile etc.
The Home icon takes you to your File Manager where you can..access your uploaded or created files!
Uploading files is a very straight forward affair, a simple file manager interface allows you to files, documents, music files and images to the on-line storage. This is fairly intuitive to use but it can take a long time if you store your files in separate folders as the up-loader closes the file selector when you choose a file.
Sounds great and it is..but occasionally the file selection process doesn't go well and the OS just keeps bleeping at you.
The Applications icon takes you, predictable to the applications.
Clicking on the Word Processor Icon activates the Eye-OS word-processor, which initially looks very sleek and professional, but once you start to use it, it's limitations soon become apparent.
The lack of a spell checker, the inability to link to images stored in Eye-OS are first to show themselves, then there is the problem of it locking up and not being able to access the document makes it almost impossible to use, to such an extent that when I was writing this under Linux, I had to abandon using the Eye-OS and use OpenOffice just to work on the document, which is kinda self-defeating regarding being able to use this OS on any machine.
If fact so much trouble was writing this that I haven't saved the screen shot of the WP!
Streaming play back of your music files is accomplished via a somewhat primitive music player which only plays a track at a time, so, if you are doing another activity such as typing a document such as this, you have to stop. Go the the music player,...activate the next track...then come back to the document..not very productive. The sound quality is good for on-line streaming, subject to the usual stutters and lag problems.
Setting up the email seems to be a complex affair in Eye-OS, with many complicated setting needed to communicate to your email accounts. This could easily dissuade the new user or those stuck for time from setting it up. Indeed, it looks like one of the last tasks I will be performing to get the most out of Eye-OS.
Browsing is taken care of by Navigator, again a very minimalistic look and feel to it. There are limited functions to this application but it appears swift for just checking an web address but would be cumbersome for a serious surfer.
Overall, I cannot really recommend this on-line OS for some of the difficulties I have encountered and far from helping me to become more productive, the WP difficulties were actually getting in the way of this goal.
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