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New Silverlight Web OS Lets You Develop Applications Online And Share Them With a Click

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2 comments   /   posted by on Sep 18, 2009
(3 votes)
ImageUserware has released today a Silverlight-based version of Wiki-OS.org.

Wiki-OS is an online environment that lets you write, build, execute, and share open-source Silverlight applications without ever leaving the web browser.

It simulates an operating system running inside the browser, complete with a start menu that lists all the applications by order of popularity and a task bar for switching between windows. Applications can be launched right away, without installation.

A development environment is included that allows creating new Silverlight 3 applications. It provides features such as syntax Imagehighlighting, auto-completion, instant deployment of updates to all users, and a source control to let multiple people work collaboratively on the same project and see the history of modifications.

Applications can be shared by copying their URL - for example https://www.wiki-os.org/Sudoku/Sudoku to launch the Sudoku - or be embedded into web pages by using an html code snippet.

Every window contains an "Edit" button that lets anyone access the source code of the window and possibly make changes, thus bringing open-source collaboration to a new level. Developers can instantly access the source code of any application, reference other people's projects, and build on top of existing components instead of constantly reinventing the wheel. They can also start a project and let the community finish it.

ImageIn the long term, Wiki-OS aims at becoming the "wikipedia of software" - that is, a place where every single connected person in the world can have free, instant, and unlimited access to the best open-source software applications, and where anyone can contribute right away, no matter their skills: developers can write a new algorithm, artists can draw an icon, linguists can contribute to the help document, and someone who has no particular skills can simply pin a suggestion so that another user can see it and implement it.
Wiki-OS is made by Userware: http://www.userware-solutions.com/
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  • RE: New Silverlight Web OS Lets You Develop Applications Online And Share Them With a Click  

    posted by Matt on Sep 18, 2009 17:54

    Sounds cool - but what happens if people start changing your application so much that it is completly different from what you originally intended? That would be nice in some situations but sometimes you create an app for a specific purpose and don't really want it hijaked by some other developer. Is there a way to protect against this sort of thing?

    -Matt (VB6 Downloads)

  • RE: New Silverlight Web OS Lets You Develop Applications Online And Share Them With a Click  

    posted by Joe on Sep 22, 2009 23:27
    To answer Matt's question (in the previous comment):
    • If two or more developers have different tastes, Wiki-OS encourages the use of "popularity-based controls" (aka "implementation selectors") that allow end-users to vote on the best implementations. All the implementations are eventually available to end-users, but they are sorted by order of popularity. For example, a popularity-based menu (or ComboBox) can be used to list all the themes of a Chess application. A toolbar can be used to list all the filters of an Image Editor sorted by rating. These controls are included into wiki-os and are very easy to use in any application.
    • If someone wants to significantly change the way that an application behaves, he/she can create a copy of the project and make the changes on that copy instead of modifying the original project.
    • Like Wikipedia, the idea of Wiki-OS.org is that by joining forces and by letting developers build upon other people's work instead of constantly reinventing the wheel, innovation can move faster and people can achieve unprecedented results. However, if you still want to have exclusive control of your application (and choose exactly who can modify what), the authors of Wiki-OS provide other products that allow you to do so ( http://www.userware-solutions.com ).

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