When it comes to personal computer operating systems or an "OS," you can count them on one hand. There's the Windows OS which you find on more personal computers than any other. Currently it's Windows XP but there's a newer version coming out soon which will be called Windows Vista. Then there's Apple Computer's Macintosh OS called OS X. Currently it's version

10.4 or "Tiger" but the newer 10.5 version known as "Leopard" should be here by the beginning of next year. The third big name in operating systems is Linux. And since it's Open Source, there's who knows how many version numbers and distributions floating around.

Now if by chance you don't know what an operating system actually does, in a nutshell it's the software that performs all of the so-called housekeeping functions on the computer. It keeps track of all the files, runs the applications, manages the utilities and stores all the data you create in an organized manner so that it may be retrieved when you need it. Now while all of these operating systems are quite different from each other, they also have a lot in common. In fact, via networks, utilities and the Internet these OSes can on a limited basis share their data and even hardware devices such as printers. Another really big thing that all of them have in common is that they're all disk operating systems. While they can let you go online and share data over all sorts of networks, these OSes were still basically designed to run locally on the computer itself and manage everything on the hard drives attached to that computer.

Recently there has been a movement to use the Internet to remotely handle some of the functions normally found on the computer itself. An example of this is backup. Off-site backup uses an Internet broadband connection to backup your computer's data to a remote location. The idea is that if there is a fire, robbery or some other local disaster that destroys your computer, the precious data you backed up isn't residing on some other media that happens to be in the same harm's way such as the drawer next to the computer or anywhere else nearby. That way, you are assured your data is safely and redundantly backed up on some remote server somewhere else. And while these remote services are becoming more and more common these days, I recently found a new remote OS. This is not an OS that resides on your computer. No, the OS resides on a remote server. In fact the entire OS runs within an ordinary web browser.

YouOS is a web-based operating system that lets you run small applications like sticky notes or clocks and large applications like word processing,

mp3 players, and instant messaging on a desktop that resides on a remote website. Now before you get too excited, let me tell you up front that this is a brand new effort. I recently interviewed the cofounder of YouOS on the Computer America show where he explained that YouOS has only been in development for around three months. Granted the look and feel of everything is a bit on the primitive side but the idea behind it is a forward-looking one. Having a web-based OS would solve many of the inherent problems of running the OS locally as it is now. Having a centralized OS insures your applications are the latest available, your data is always backed up and you can access your computer from any Internet-connected computer.

Currently, YouOS offers only primitive applications like a simple word processor, a notepad and a chat room. However the chat room was recently upgraded to handle language translation. The really interesting thing is that the language feature wasn't added by the makers of YouOS but rather by some user who had the idea. That's because right now, users can tweak the existing applications or even write their own from scratch as the YouOS is pretty much open right now. As things progress, it's only natural that more advanced security mechanisms will be put in place.

But for right now, I suggest you go over to the YouOS website and try out the demo. It's an interesting experience and you may just be glimpsing at what the future has in store for the more advanced operating systems of the future. The YouOS website can be accessed by any computer running the aforementioned disk operating systems and most all of the popular web browsers that run on them. Currently, registration is free.

www.youos.com