Look, up in the cloud...

...it is not a bird or a plane it is gOS. gOS is a cloud computing operating system that is really light weight and beautifully developed. But first lets talk a little about cloud computing, it is a pretty simple concept that people have been talking about for years, the basic premise is all you need in a computer is basic hardware, an internet connection, and  a browser. All your applications live in the cloud and you can have access anytime on any machine. Google currently provides most of these service as does Microsoft with live. For example with Google I can have my e-mail via gamil, my documents on (excel, word, powerpoint) via google docs, my calendar via google calendar, my rss reader via google reader, well you get the picture. There is very little that I do on the actual hard drive. The biggest thing for me on my HD is my music and I am sure it is just a matter of time when Apple or Google will allow me to upload all my music to their servers and I can update my iPhone from any computer.

Now back to the gOS Cloud, which they will be launching at CES. This is the first cloud operating system that is launching and it seems that the developers have put a lot of effort into design and usability so that it doesn't look like a first version of the OS. As you can see below the browser is the hub of all activity with an application "dock" at the bottom for easy access to all the essentials (mail, calendar, docs, etc.).

(You can see more screenshots here)

The gOS Cloud had fully integrated most of Googles applications in a really simple way that is modeled after the Apples OS. Below is a quick video via engadget.

I really think in the next 2-3 years as the netbook (really small striped down computers more here and here) market gets bigger and the gOS Cloud develops and devices like the iPhone get better at word processing functions (like formatting and cut & paste) cloud computing will become more main stream. Hopefully, this will push public wifi into the spot light as well, because I don't think this will happen until there is a huge public need/outcry. Lots of chicken and eggs happening here or maybe it is something about carts and horses.