I was asked recently by a good friend of mine what the difference was between having your own web desktop and using Google’s web based productivity tools. It’s actually a good question. But there are 3 specific reasons why I am enjoying using the open source eyeOS and hosting my own web desktop, as opposed to using a 3rd party service like Google.

1. The data is mine – sometimes I work on confidential business documents, and the last thing I want is for those documents to be hosted by a 3rd party. Even if that 3rd party is Google as much as I trust them. With my own web desktop, hosted on my own server that I pay for, I know that my information is kept completely private.

2. Everything in one browser tab – one of my biggest pet peeves about Google’s web apps, is that they all involve opening yet another tab in my browser. There are times when I’m editing a doc, spreadsheet, reading RSS feeds, and checking Gmail all at the same time. Well this causes not 1 but 4 tabs to be open in my web browser. Enough to drive me crazy. With a web desktop, it’s all contained in one tab on the browser.

3. There are things I cannot do with Google or Zoho – as great as their services are, there are still a few things I cannot do, but I can do with a web desktop. These 2 main things are 1) the ability to have access to a FTP client from anywhere and 2) a file backup application so I can save documents, images, and other file types on the go.

All in all, this open source web desktop eyeOS is proving to be a huge productivity boost for me. And I hope it helps you as well. Here are 7 ways eyeOS is allowing me to work literally from anywhere.

1. eyeOS Word Processor

2. eyeOS Spreadsheets

3. eyeOS RSS Reader

4. eyeOS Contact Manager

5. eyeOS FTP Client

6. eyeOS Calendar

7. eyeOS File Manager

If you are interested in setting up eyeOS and getting your own Web Desktop I have created a set of instructions to help you install eyeOS on your own web server.