Things are now really moving forward. For those that have Beta accounts to XIOS/3 you might have seen some major improvements over the last few months. First of all the OS loads and handles information faster. More features have been added as well as more applications. Some of these apps include the Presentation Application that allows you to make slideshow applications and the iLauncher that allows you to make an application window so that you can use any webb 2.0 application on the web, such as Gmail, Hotmail, Google Document or whatever. For those that have HTML experience it is similar to an iframe; that you can drag and has application properties (close, minimize, maximize, transparency).

Then there is the Mediaplayer application, developed by us at XideZone. It is a very simple composition, where functionality will be added with time. It is really incredible how fast and easy you can develop small little apps. Today the player only plays radio station (where many more will be added) but will in time also support music and videos. There might also be some interest for a favorites section in the application where the user can add their data (radio stations, videos etc).

Xcerion has also released a new video of their presentation application. You can find it at this YouTube link.

Finding XideZone in XIOS/3

If you do not have XideZone on your desktop then you should open the Control Panel application (system tab in the start menu). There select the “System”t tab and then the “Applications” tab. A list of available system applications will be displayed, simply scroll down to the option “XideZone Community” and check the option “Show desktop Icon”. It should appear on your desktop.

It can also be found using the support tab in the start menu or the XideZone icon inside the XML editor application.

If you are a new member you will have to choose a username for XideZone. Then XideZone will be launched.

How is XideZone doing?

Using our forum (a sub application within the XideZone application) you can ask any question that you might have about XIOS/3 development. The search functionality is being improved and will of course include the articles section as well as the forum.

What is ahead?

There have been some adjustments in the Process XML language which we will post inside the news section when they are implemented. What is being done for developers you might ask? Well I happen to know that the following areas are very active:

• Documentation: The XIOS/3 documentation (available via XIOS Docs or HelpCenter) is being improved with more text, examples and details.
• Visual Developer Tool: The Visual IDE that Xcerion announced is being upgraded and is to be released in the first quarter.
• A New video of a more advanced To Do Manager being made by Xcerions CTO Marcus Bristav.

That all for this time!

/Goran Panic

Xcerion just uploaded a new high-detailed demo video (WMV-format) that shows how the realtime transaction system works in XIOS/3.

Link video:
http://xcerion.com/media/Xcerion%20Transaction%20Demo.wmv

Link post:
http://xcerion.com/mamblog-section/default-category/new-demo-video/

Xcerion just published their first video of XIOS/3 on YouTube. Have a look.

Well, this is the first post; everything has to have a beginning, right? :-)XideZone is the forthcoming developer community dedicated to supporting a new generation of XML developers, using XIOS/3. When Swedish company Xcerion AB opens beta testing of the Xcerion XML Internet Operating System (XIOS/3) in the end of third quarter 2007, XideZone will be right there to support tens of thousands of developers. Ever wondered why it’s XIOS/3, well Xcerion says there already is an OS/2

XideZone have for months been working closely together with parts of the Xcerion team. We have received input on how we best can create a site that will be 100% dedicated for XIOS/3 their developers. Xcerion has opened up their technology for us and we have been developing using it for three months! We have now also managed to convince Xcerion to be a part-owner of XideZone. Initially we will even get some funding from Xcerion. Even though Xcerion is a part owner, we will try to stay objective for all developers.

Xcerion has, as reported by many technology reporters a possibility to beat both Microsoft and Google to the punch by delivering the world’s first “cloud” Web OS. They might be years ahead of the competition when it comes to the cloud technology. I believe Xcerion has listed almost 100 articles that have been written ahead of their launch. So the heat is on…

What is XideZone?

As mentioned earlier XideZone is a new developer community software built into the XIOS/3 platform and fully integrated within the system. Alongside with Xcerion; XideZone will offer extensible information about XIOS/3 development and try to cover all major interesting development projects that will be done on the OS.

XideZone will launch together with Xcerion’s beta program and includes a developer forum, a wiki, articles by us and also articles by external application developers. XideZone will be a free service available inside as well as outside of XIOS/3. The external version will however have limited interactivity.

We plan to extend the information we offer to also include Video Interviews, Screen Casts and project management as well as various Cooperation Tools.

Xcerion – madness or success?

We believe that Xcerion is the first company that has developed an Internet OS that actually works (we know, we have extensively been using it). The idea is vaguely built on the idea of User Generated Content (UGC), meaning that they will let developers create new applications for the platform. When Xcerion launches they will supply every user with XIDE/3 – Xcerion Integrated Development Environment, which means that you can create applications by just writing XML. The XML contains no scripting or traditional programming code. This may seem strange to some, but really makes the Model View Controller design pattern come to life!

Xcerion has developed XIOS/3 since 2001, which means almost 7 years of research and development on a single idea. This got to be some type of record for a company being in “stealth-mode”? Recently Xcerion also received over 10 million USD from the European venture capitalist firm NorthZone ventures.

What makes XIOS/3 really interesting is that it is built in XML with a size smaller than 2 MB. After the initial boot-time the user then can start any application built for the OS. Under the beta program period, more and more applications will become available on the OS according to Xcerion.

Xcerion plans to deliver approximately 40 to 60 per cent of the regular application functionality on the applications they provide on top of the OS, which is the functionality that is normally used by a user, but with the size of applications being only 1/100 or even 1/1000 the size as their Windows counterparts. This is possible because the OS caters for a lot of the functionality that otherwise need to be written within traditional applications on other operating systems. As for their web counterparts, Xcerion has their offline-technology, which will enable the user to use applications even if they are offline; the only condition is that they booted XIOS/3 while having an Internet connection. This is a major differentiator between Xcerion’s technology and others, their applications run within the browser without doing any server round-trips – they do actually not run on the server.

While making progress in the software development area, Xcerion has admitted that the hardest challenge facing them is the lack of software when they launch. Current applications that want to run on the XIOS/3 platform needs to be rewritten into XML to leverage the offline capabilities and enhanced user experience or wrapped into an XML application. The latter alternative seems like a viable option to quickly get some applications on the OS, since it makes it possible to move software written in PHP, Java, .NET or any other web platform into XIOS/3. After making the software run on XIOS/3, more and more functionality can be moved into XML, hence gradually enhancing the user experience of the application.

As for Xcerion’s philosophy “Software should be free”, we can certainly say that they are preparing to fulfill this promise by creating a marketplace that software developers can use to spread the word of their own software. XideZone hopes to be part of the marketplace by supporting developers to collectively author and project manage applications that later can be published on the marketplace.

The possibilities are huge, and the future seems to be quite interesting. Gartner Analytics has estimated that the software-as-a-service (S-a-a-S) will be worth an estimated 19.3 billion dollars. Furthermore XIOS/3 in combination with a cheap laptop could enable millions of new users to gain access to all of this amazing software or even XIOS/3 on a USB-memory stick (eliminating the initial boot-load), ready to go on anytime.

So what are the challenges that Xcerion and XIOS/3 are facing?

We see that there are three main challenges facing Xcerion as they initiate their beta program.

First you have the competition spelled “G & M”, no not General Motors, but instead Google and Microsoft. They are both rumored to be developing their own web-based operating systems and as you all know they have vast resources at their disposal. Both companies have also previously managed to get developers to develop using their programming languages or APIs.

Second, Xcerion lack applications and developers engaged in software development for their system, since there are no users as of yet. This is a major issue. Although with tens of thousand signed up BETA testers we guess that there are a lot of developers that will start to develop as soon as the beta program is started in Q3. I’m guessing that initially when users start using XIOS/3 many might be a bit frustrated with the lack of useful applications and developers will be confused by new APIs and by having to develop in XML. Xcerion and their partners are building software, but will they do this fast enough to satisfy the consumers? Will consumers build their own applications?

And finally the third challenge; Xcerions ad revenue business plan, will it work? We have seen Google do extremely well using advertisement revenue, but can this model be applied on an OS based environment such as Xcerion’s? Xcerion will offer the system for free and are hoping for a wide spread use throughout the world. To be honest I share that vision, I believe that it will especially be popular in developing countries, giving them the possibility to create software localized for their needs.

Well there are still many questions that we have no answers to. I guess I can sum it up with: Exiting times are ahead for Xcerion and for everyone involved in XIOS/3 and hopefully also for XideZone. We will be there keeping a close watch for you.

Written by:
Goran Panic

Project Manager, XideZone AB