This morning I received a long awaited invite to try out the beta of the Xcerion XML Internet OS/3 and I must admit I was a bit blown away with just how much they have built. As you can see from the following screenshot (yes, this is actually running within IE in fullscreen mode) it has a number of the building blocks like text editor (Notepad lives on), console, explorer, menus, icons and even a sidebar following the Vista theme.
The biggest issue is going to be user adoption, which of course will be driven by application availability and compatibility. Without Word, Excel and Powerpoint compatible applications this new environment will struggle to even get a look in. Interestingly the Presentation application seems to be just as slow to open and work with as Powerpoint – perhaps worth suggesting that they don’t copy all Microsoft’s features 😉
In summary: Interesting concept, personally I wouldn’t be investing either $$$ or time/effort to engage with this technology.