chaos
LABORATORY

Of all the Web OS-es I’ve reviewed, Desktoptwo can be called a serious contender. The whole interface is flash-based giving it a very sleek look with smooth operation - although some applications might take a while to load.

The interface seems like a cross-breed between Vista’s Aero look and Mac OS-X. The application menu is similar to Windows Start Menu. There’s a handy desktop bar that serves as a quick-launch panel for some common applications like MP3 player, Instant Messenger etc. The desktop bar also contains a quick-search box for performing searches through popular search engines.

Desktoptwo has the most complete list of applications I’ve seen among the one’s I’ve reviewed - and all fully functional except for a few minor bugs here and there. The annoying part is that many of the applications open up in another pop-up window. This is kind of detrimental to enjoying seamless operation since it beats the whole purpose of their taskbar.

Applications that open in pop-up windows don’t register in the taskbar and hence you cannot use it to switch to other apps. The only point you can choose between pop-up windows/full-screen/same window is while you’re logging in to the desktop - but this setting doesn’t reflect to the applications.

Moreover, the OS doesn’t remember all your settings correctly and except for a handful (like RSS Reader) most of the application/desktop are forgotten between sessions.
The list of pre-installed applications include…

• Full Open-Office Suite
• WYSIWYG HTML Editor (similar to FrontPage)
• Notepad
• Instant Messenger
• RSS Feed Reader
• Email Client
• Address Book
• MP3 Player
• Site Bookmarking Utility
• Acrobat Reader
• Blogging Tool that posts to their associated blogging system (BlinkinBlog)
• Clock
• System Information etc.

There’s no instant demo available. However, you can try it out as soon as you register with them. Along with registration comes 1 GB free storage space and a desktoptwo email address.

Overall, it’s definitely one of the best out there…they just need to smoothen out a couple of bugs & usability issues here and there.

Try it out and let me know. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.