In the March 2008 issue of PC Magazine there is a great article, "The Best Free Software." In that article they list, among many other things, free online operating systems. I spent a little bit of time exploring some of these programs. The first they list, ajaxWindows crashed my browser when I tried to use it. The second I used, eyeOS, worked well and seemed simple to use but was not all that versatile. The third one I used, Glide, sparked some excitement for me. This tool, while similar to Google Docs & Spreadsheets, is much flashier. It's graphic interface is very user friendly. Most interesting is how Glide seems to merge basic elements of an operating system with the collaborative potential of web 2.0 tools like YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, del.icio.us, and online office programs. The 2gb storage space they give you free makes Glide a nice service for anytime, anywhere computing. The other nice feature that is present with Glide that is not readily present on other similar programs is the ease of creating websites with editable CSS templates. I can definitely see how this could evolve over the next five years into what the Horizon Report talks about when they say that social operating systems will greatly influence education in the future.
Glide Write
Glide Present
Glide Edit
Glide Publish
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