Mozilla Labs Showcases a Browser Desktop
Mozilla's Mozilla Labs can be a confusing showcase of ideas, at least occasionally.
Some ideas are heavily defended by Mozilla, even if they aren't part of Mozilla's core product development and others are marked as outside ideas that Mozilla would never ever consider for its products. I am not quite sure in which category the Webian Shell desktop falls.
It's a browser that is built on top of Mozilla Lab's Chromeless foundation and lacks most elements of a browser, but resembles pretty much what Google does with Chrome OS. Webian Shell is pitched as a OS GUI replacement that interfaces with web applications. There is little more to this concept at this time, but given Google strong confidence in Chrome OS suggests that an interface such as Webian Shell could have a future. The problem, of course, is that Google already has a platform and is building an eco-system around it, which Mozilla lacks.
One could also argue that there is really no need for a browser OS, as Windows or Mac OS X have a much more solid foundation and simply need to learn how to better deal with web apps (which appears to be the case in Mac OS X Lion and Windows 8). That said, a browser may really be all a user needs on future cloud computing devices that aim for the entry level market and basic computing needs.
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Don't take the same wrong path that Google did. Seriously, these browser-only systems suck. They are incapable. Why would I buy one when I can get a far more capable Windows machine for the same price (or less)?
This is not an OS - this is a shell. So this is not like Google's Chrome OS at all. Think of it as Windows 3.x running on top of DOS, whereas Chrome OS is more like Windows 95 or OS/2.
I think Mozilla should work on getting Firefox up to speed with the competition. Just my 2 cents.
No. No. No. *facepalm*.
1) Don't try to make a knock-off of someone else's idea unless it's truly superior or you got the marketing muscle to sweep the competition off its feet. As much as I like Mozilla, they lack both compared to Google.
2) Why would you want such a browser based OS? As the reviewer said, Mac and Windows (and Linux!) are learning to play nice with web apps, but offer so much more on top of that. And lightweight? There are plenty of Linux distro's designed specifically for being light. They make Chrome OS look bloated, yet offer full desktop functionality.
This is not an OS - this is a shell. So this is not like Google's Chrome OS at all. Think of it as Windows 3.x running on top of DOS, whereas Chrome OS is more like Windows 95 or OS/2.
Win9x ran on top of Dos6.x....as opposed to Dos5.x as Win1-3.x needed. ChromeOS would be more like WinNT.... which, even that would be wrong as ChromeOS is little more than a modified version of the Chrome browser running on top of Linux.
Maybe Mozilla Labs is thinking of launching its own OS in the future.