We’ve now entered the month of March, and the Jooce website is still alive, people can still sign up, and their blog has been silent since October 2008. No notice of shut-down anywhere to be found, and e-mails are not bouncing (we hope they’re still being replied to since we contacted the Jooce team for comment). But since Mangrove was the company’s only investor, having injected seed funding into the startup in 2007, we’re pretty sure we can deadpool the startup.

Update: wow. Jooce got back us with a completely different story:

I think the gun was jumped just a bit, Jooce is not closing. In fact, Jooce has been recently been in talks with an undisclosed buyer within the internet cafe world wishing to acquire Jooce. Doors don’t shut so easily on great technology.

When I asked why the VC would possibly claim such a thing about one of their portfolio companies, they made me laugh out loud by saying that “VCs are apparently not omniscient” and that “God can rest easy for now”.

We covered Jooce, which operates (operated) a web-based OS, a couple of times before starting with its launch in August 2007. It offered a virtual online desktop that provided a Flash platform for communication services like chat and e-mail combined with a custom way to play games, listen to music, etc. so you could essentially have the same user experience when you go online on any computer anywhere in the world.

I’ve always had doubts about this kind of concept, which is similar to what startups like Goowy, Cloudo, eyeOS and others are up to, given the current evolution of the web.

See, I already have a web-based OS. I just refer to it as my browser.

Cloudo was previously part of Xindesk, a company that was promising a WebOS and Widget platform that we’ve mentioned in passing previously. The widget platform is now known as “Widget Plus” with the WebOS taking the Cloudo name.

Cloudo offers standard fare in terms of a WebOS, including file hosting, virtual desktop widgets, applications, email and contact management and eventually a full suite of programs you’d expect from a regular desktop Operating System. Where it excels is in appearance; offerings like AjaxWindows have a touch of ugly about them, Jooce and EyeOS try to be original. Cloudo gets the visuals right first time around, with a high quality visually appealing standard layout. Better still, if you don’t like it, Cloudo comes complete with a big range of themes, including other operating systems including various flavors of Windows, Mac and Linux so users can make themselves feel right at home.

I remember the first time I saw Cloudo when it was Xindesk and I was impressed then, but here in lies the problem. There was mention of Xindesk soon launching in the comments on this post in February 2007. When I first was pitched Xindesk in the middle of last year I was told it would be ready by the end of 2007, early 2008. Cloudo’s current status: they’re inviting more people into the alpha this week and its current release schedule has it being ready to open its doors in the last quarter of 2008. This is a product with potential that if it gets off the ground could well convert people to the cloud, however we might all get significantly older waiting for the launch, and Cloudo could be passed function wise and aesthetically by more nimble competitors while we are waiting.

Like Zimbra, eyeOS is a server based application that users must download and install to access (one reason that this is a server app – to overcome data security concerns by business customers). The company launched a hosted demo version of the product in June and has just over 80,000 registrations to test the service.

Essentially, eyeOS is like Goowy, except it does not run on Flash. The applications run on almost any browser, based on Javascript. It ain’t bad but it’s not a fully-functional Windows-replaceable operating system just yet. It has a word processing program, chat, calendar, RSS, and a Web browser. It is missing a spreadsheet and presentation program, among other things that would make it a proper OS. But it’s a work in progress.

The point is that it is a community-building effort. Founder Pau Garcia-Milá said that the company takes 90 percent of their development ideas from public requests via the Wishlist, wiki, or open forums.

“We really think that a webOS MUST be Open Source, for the simple reason
that a Web operating system tries to allow users be ‘free’ from their computer,” Garcia-Milà said. “If it’s not open source, you’re closing all of your users into YOUR server.”

eyeOS hosts the OS on their free server, funded through public donations. There are three ways to install eyeOS: MiniServer, which is the complete OS for Windows, MicroServer a lighter weight server for Windows, and Source Code, which installs the system under an existing server.

eyeOS is based in Spain, where it was founded in 2005. So far they have only been funded through $1,300 or so in donations, partly because “living in Spain means difficulties on the investment front.” Once version 1.0 launches, Garcia-Milá says that the business model will change.

See Go2Web2′s preview of ORCA today as well, a similar service.