JeOSing (Juicing) up at MWC

There is definitively nothing like freshly squeezed orange juice and at this years MWC in Barcelona there was certainly no shortage of it. Almost every cafe in the Fira had a machine that pulverized oranges into a fresh glass of juice on the on spot. But this isn't the juice that got me really excited; what really got me going was the amount of JeOS (pronounced Juice) that was there.

JeOS stands for Just enough Operating System and is about the trend to move away from ever more powerful and complex OS to Just enough OS to do a set of your most common tasks. In my case, and I think this is true for a lot of other people, this means just enough OS to run a Web 2.0 capable browser and little else. I am not going to go into a lot of detail about exactly what JeOS is here. There is a rather dry definition of JeOS on Wikipedia but I think a good description of the trend can be found in an article entitled "The incredible shrinking operating system".(BTW w.r.t. this article I don't think Jim Ready is ready to leave Monta Vista in favor or Citrix any time soon- maybe it's another Jim Ready?)

The reason I like the JeOS trend is quite simple: At work I probably spend about 60% of my time in a browser and that's only because I run Outlook as my email client which takes up about another 30+% of my time. If I ran the web client for Outlook then I'd be spending 90% of my time just in the browser. At home I am big fan of Google Docs, GMail etc. and actually almost never leave the browser on my home laptop or handheld device except to chat with someone via Skype. So I am increasingly wondering do I really need a 4Gb RAM, 320Gb Drive, Intel Centrino 2 computing equivalent of a monster truck to keep me in touch and informed?

I think the answer is a resounding "No!" and that's what a lot of other folk are thinking too. There is an excellent article on the NetBook revolution by Clive Thomson in this months Wired explaining that Netbooks running Linux (and that's just enough Linux for a browser and a couple of applications) are a significant Disruptive Technology wave that will change the way we treat personal computing in the future.

Which leads me back to my trip to MWC: At the show Phoenix Technologies showcased HyperSpace running on an ARM NetBook prototype board and I thought this is something I really will be able to use. Phoenix have utilized the powerful skinning and bookmarking features of Mozilla's FireFox browser to create a very user friendly, easy-to-use Web UI that is "Instant On" and will easily run all day without needing to be recharged on future ARM Powered Netbooks.