Introducing Xcerion - a cloud operating system that uses the leftover wallpapers from Windows Vista, courtesy of Hamad Darwish. Windows Vista managed to turn Hamad Darwish into a veritable star and to spread his photography worldwide, as no less than five of his images are now integrated into the operating system among the default wallpapers. But, Darwish also had to deal with quite a consistent package of photographs, which he took when he was commissioned to do the photoshoot for Vista. Following the launch on the operating system, the remaining Vista wallpapers that were either not submitted to Microsoft, or not chosen to ship with the operating system, became available for download.

Some of those wallpapers are now featured by the Internet-based Xcerion operating system, as you are able to see from the screenshots integrated at the bottom of this article. Of course that the Vista similarities do not stop here. Xcerion also comes to the table with transparency effects and with a Sidebar, replicating the look and feel of the Windows Aero graphical user interface. The cloud OS is the product of a Swedish start-up, which is connected to Microsoft via advisory board member Lou Perazzoli, former Windows NT architect, and through the former Microsoft Chief Financial Officer, John Connors, now an investor into the project.

"Xcerion Internet Operating System/3 (XIOS/3) the clean, carefree, zero-footprint XML-based OS, running within the browser. Since the OS and its applications executes in the browser it also works offline. The Internet OS boots itself (takes around 3 seconds) and runs in the primary memory of the computer. As soon as the browser is shut down, the OS disappears from the computer. Using XIOS/3 you never has to think about installing patches, updates or new versions of software again. The OS updates itself. You may also access your applications and documents from any Internet connected computer", reads the official description of Xcerion.