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IBM is teaming up with eyeOS, the maker of an open-source, web-based operating system. We've had our (ahem) eye on eyeOS for quite some time. It's receiving renewed interest in the wake of the much anticipated launch of Google Chrome OS.

IBM will offer eyeOS 2.0, available in January, to all customers who buy IBM's System Z mainframe servers. SystemZ servers are used mainly by large organizations for data processing purposes. So eyeOS will be used as a desktop in the cloud for potentially thousands of enterprise users.

Since the announcement of Google Chrome OS, the upcoming web-based operating system from search giant Google, a number of smaller web OS startups have hoped to capitalize on the renewed interest in the cloud desktop. One of those startups, eyeos, today announced their plans to release the next major upgrade to their web OS product, eyeos 2.0, on January 1st, 2010. To differentiate themselves from the herd, eyeos offers a couple of unique features including automatic sync with the local desktop and a host-your-own option. But is this what users really want in a cloud os?