cool! -- put the web on the desktop!

By basd on May 22, 2009 | In kde4, linux, opensuse, cloud computing

A lot of thinking is always way ahead of me. Apparently KDE and Mozilla are thinking about integrating the web browser and the desktop. Which, as we move toward true cloud computing, makes a lot of sense.

...

For instance, if we are using the eyeOS desktop -- why not just integrate it with KWIN temporarily (or permanently, depending on needs) and use the full on-screen real estate.

(How about, a local desktop on one of the pager desktop, a remote/web desktop on one of the other pager desktops?)

The trick will be the correct balance of online/offline tools. Despite my posts on (and attempts to establish) ever-increasing cloud computing capabilities, I live in dread of those moments when I'm offline and have no access. For instance, I access my documents via online database. Somewhat less elegantly, I am able to access my documents locally (but only if I maintain a current local webpage snapshot of the full database output).

Mostly, I just feel helpless until the net re-emerges. I need a more fluid transition.

It's possible to run a local web server (even from the client computer) -- but then you get into the issues of maintaining a synchronized database. I haven't found adequate open source tools for this.

An exciting tool would be a "one click" system that installed the apache, mysql, php web server tools (etc.) and duplicated of your hosted online server databases. Then proceeded to maintain a synchronized version.

To my own discredit, I think I have hard-coded some of my links to my own URL -- which is not available when I use the local server.

Bad planning.

Anyway, I read about the KWIN and Mozilla discussion on the PlanetKDE mailing list.