Test drive: ajaxWindows leaves nasty streaks

Any hacker worth his or her salt has at one point dreamed of creating a new operating system. Now, with the rise of new programming interfaces that have made interactive Web 2.0 applications possible, more and more people are falling into this tempting trap. The latest casualty is ajaxWindows, named after the web scripting language that evolved from Microsoft's early experiments in remote scripting. ajaxWindows simulates an entire operating system—without actually being one—inside a single browser window. The application runs on Firefox 2.x and Internet Explorer 6 or 7: Opera and Safari users are not invited to the party.