(Column) - Today, we’re using the Internet for more things than we ever really expected to use it for. When it first became popularized, the idea of sending simple text messages back and forth to one another was all the rage, but beyond that, it would have been very difficult to accurately predict where the Internet would lead us right up to the current day. In fact, it’s almost as if the Internet has been reinvented as of late. The name alone Web 2.0 brings to mind a change or a version improvement, and while the core concepts of the Internet are the same, the way that tools are built and the way users interact with them has changed quite a bit.

Even if you just mentally go back in time a little bit to the days of Windows 95, you’d realize that Web 1.0 was still alive and well then, and although the Internet was an extraordinarily useful resource, the desktop operating system was still the primary tool that you used while computing. When you wanted to surf the Internet, you’d sign in, do what you needed to, and then sign-off. It was more of a secondary experience than a primary one. Desktop applications were still being developed by the truckloads, and they allowed you to be very productive offline.

Nowadays, instead of the Internet being something that you have to connect and disconnect from, broadband connections have led to the always-on online lifestyle, and no matter what you’re doing, you’re only a click away from being fed more content than you can handle at speeds that will keep up with your insatiable appetite. What a difference from the days of old, eh?

More and more users are finding that they spend the majority of their time on the computer on the Internet, and developers are rushing to give them all of the services that they could possibly want and need online. Desktop innovation is dying down now, and we’re mostly seeing applications and services that are either based completely online or are largely Web-enabled. We’re all watching the death of the desktop take place right before our very eyes.

Some Web developers have thought that since they have been able to largely replicate the desktop application experience on the Internet, then why shouldn’t they be able to replicate the desktop operating system experience on the Internet as well? This thinking has led to the creation of the WebOS, and franticindustries has done a roundup of ten WebOS solutions for you to check out (http://franticindustries.com/blog/2006/12/21/big-webos-roundup-10-online-operating-systems-reviewed/).

Before you check these Web operating systems out, it’s important to realize that while the description of an operating system is used quite liberally in connection with these services, they’re not actually operating systems. They don’t directly communicate with your hardware and software, but instead, they’re a set of Web applications that are built in such a way to make you feel like you’re using a traditional OS. Several of them are quite good, and they provide a nice way for you to organize your online activities and content within an interface that can be controlled.

With that said, while the focus on the desktop is waning, it’s not like one of these ten WebOS solutions is going to replace your desktop operating system anytime soon. Even though they are improving, they still feel like novelty toys, and whenever I use one, I tend to ask myself, "Why in the world am I doing this?"

There will most likely come a day when we have the chance to use an operating system that essentially boots straight into an online desktop interface (show us what you’ve got, Google), but until then, your traditional copies of Windows, OS X, and Linux are here to stay.

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