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Companies offer variations on the concept of using the Web as an application container or development platform.

The idea of treating the Web like an operating system is picking up steam. Goowy, Laszlo Systems, Xcerion and YouOS are among the companies building on the concept.

The notion dates back to the Netscape browser's debut in the mid-1990s. Technically, so-called Web OS software still relies on an underlying operating system, like Windows or Linux, to translate a user's actions to hardware functions. But proponents of the Web OS or "Webtops" are bringing more end user computing into the Web browser, arguably making the choice of operating system less important.

Laszlo Webtop (shown here) enables developers who use Open Laszlo software to create multiple applications that can interact with each other inside a single browser window.
Credit: CNET Networks

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