Browsing through some postings I made a year or two ago I ran into my point-blank rejection of YouOS. The idea is a a web site that is a desktop – or if you like, an OS. This is a terribly wrong-headed idea.

We have the Google giant out there, which is gradually assembling a set of applications that can live out there in the cloud and which will probably end up cached on the desktop for when you’re unconnected. Google has already established a customer base with this and it will inevitably grow larger.

Then we have Google’s main competitor, Zoho, which is competing so hard with Google that I believe it may have carved out a life for itself. (It may turn out to be a short-lived life, but that will now be because it gets acquired rather than stomped on).

Notice that neither Zoho nor Google felt the need to provide you with a desktop. Why?

Well:

Point 1) A desktop is a PC cliché that is not cloud-centric.

Point 2) You already have a desktop on your access device (PC). Who needs two?

Point 3) Google and Zoho both realize that your browser is the “desktop in the cloud”. They design their web sites with that in mind.

YouOS is just a browser within a browser, which is likely to be attractive only to those who are deeply in love with redundant recursion.

Sadly, YouOS ain’t gonna make it. It has no purpose.