.. as they are now known, are not a new concept. Microsoft's Active Desktop is a webpage in your desktop, and was one of the first web pages I started playing with. (examples to come).

Latest Update (21-06-08)
since, and while, putting together this page, I ended up learning PHP in order to develop iSource.net.nz more fully, and ended up using a very lite web application called PHP Navigator, which is and file explorer with a built in editor, totaling only about 86Kb including images, also supporting deflate compression. After about six month of tweaking said app, in order for it to function more fully (I am a internet developer), improving its browser compatibility and interface, and submitting the changes and enhancements I made, I was asked to become the lead developer.

Since that time PHP Navigator has become multi-user capable, with a new skin. The enhancements I have made are still outside the main development branch, as I found it was particularly useful to prototype certain things with my original single user version, see phpnav.isource.net.nz for more details, comparisons and downloads. The point of this post is to let everyone know that there es a proto-type Atari ST interface available as part of maintaining v4.12 (my own official version), with explorer, and editor, plus some other nic-nac's, and it is currently the tool I use to continue to develop the new object orientated version 5 of PHP Navigator. As a byproduct it now supports 99% of web browsers, on 99% of platforms, includes skinning an now gzip compression.

The Atari ST skin is technically unsupported, as is my version of PHP Navigator, but that is because it will be completely different (coding wise) when PHP Navigator v5 is released, which is intended to make it easier for both developers and users to extend and modify PHP Navigator. However that said it is totally usable, and like I said above, I actually use it to actively continue proto-type, main branch, and other php related development.

Give it a try an see what you think, I may put up an Atari Only version of this PHP Navigator proto-type, just to make it easier for folks to have, however it is still a bit quirky under certain circumstances, but this is mostly due to wanting to keep to the original look'n'feel of the Atari ST.

Enjoy..


History
I started developing the netDesktop in about July of 2000 when I was working for myself in a room at home in South Africa, in a room I used to call "the Cage". I had an IIS web server which had ALL my development on it to that point, including a 70% site mirror of the MSDN Website, so I had access to file searches of cutting edge and bleeding edge technology, protocols, examples, and white papers of the time (.Net was only a white paper) and hence my web based development was prolific.

webTOS grew out a fascination with Atari ST & STe computers, the GEM desktop, and a couple of emulators I had at the time. One of the most suprising things about its development was the fact that the 2 default fonts (large & small) are built into windows, and as a bonus both small font sizes are available in a web page without using style tags :) Open up T: drive, and double click the .bmp to see the original fonts.

netDesktop is HTML & JavaScript & CSS. The only reason the JavaScript doesn't work in non-IE browsers is because of the document.all reference, which just happens to be the core of the object reference system. The code itself WILL work in any JavaScript enabled browser, but obviously needs to be re-worked to enable object management to function properly. There is a desktop object, generic file, folder and program objects. There is also a desktop/OS registry which allows for new objects to be added with the minimum of fuss.

Just a couple of notes on netDesktop functionality, it currently only works in IE 5+, not every menu option works, Open works on nothing, TRASH, FLOPPY, DRIVE T:, and files in T: drive. The Viewer was never a part of Atari's GEM desktop, but was a logical first application, note the .asp & .bmp files. All the login menu items work, opening external browser windows. Also, most of the mouse over or select images are missing. The only other thing I have noticed, especially after using a couple of the other demos on show, is it is extremely fast, especially the drag. This makes sense when you realise that the original development was on a 233MMX NT 5 & Windows 2000 platform. Considering it is a single HTML page, I am seriously glad I still have a copy of it to develop into a full WebOS, or in my case a WebTOS.

Keep an eye out for future developments of this web desktop, starting with cross browser compatibility, and shell replacements for various other webOS's including eyeOS, CorneliOS, to name a couple. As it happens, an Amiga version is also a relatively simple modification to produce too. I guess any type of OS or point and click desktop could be implemented, allowing some of us "old foagies" to browse the web with nostalgic pleasure.

From what I have seen of other efforts, both skinning and web applications are just a matter of patiently working up the graphics, which in the case of netDesktop - webTOS, actually just means CSS. This also probably accounts for the speed of the thing.

Below are a couple of lists of other peoples efforts at a net desktop or webtop, one is stuff you can download, the other is online only (or a proprietary business development in alpha or beta stage and hence free at the moment).

References:
web desktop - wiki google
web operating system - wiki google

free	download		online only	free
Y	netDesktop		AstraNOS	Y
Y	CorneliOS		G.ho.st	Y
Y	eyeOS		OOS	Y
Y	Purefect		Virtual-OS	Y
Y	Klorofil		WebDows	Y
			YouOS	Y
various WebOS screen shots