User:JohnPritchard/Webtop

The term Webtop describes a virtual desktop on the web, running in a web browser. A webtop delivers an environment for using compatible web based applications.

Some have categorized webtops as instances of a Web operating system. However webtops have far too little in common with the current state of the art in the evolution of the operating system to merit this usage. The webtop has evolved into a thin layer of the web infrastructure for composing an application or work space, as opposed to the distributed evolution of operating systems such as the evolution expressed in the generations from Unix through Plan9 and into Inferno.

The Webtop is a center of activity for the Office 2.0 online workspace.

Evolution
Web 1.0 Webtops are systems that present web applications running on the Webtop server. The implementation of each application is entirely or largely specific to the Webtop system.

Web 2.0 Webtops are systems with minimal compatible application code (for example in XML with embedded HTML and JavaScript) running from the Webtop server. This approach permits the Webtop application to be a slim web graphical user interface to any other application in the Greater web operating system (any Web service).

Examples
Examples of webtops include the following.


 * webOS
 * eyeOS
 * youOS
 * Google Personalized Homepage