Webtops - 20 online desktops to try

Posted on June 12, 2008 at 5:25 am

The ultimate aim of cloud-computing proponents is to rid yourself of the need to ever need desktop software or operating systems. Data is to be accessible and secure anywhere you have Internet access and services light and installation free.

They’ve also been saying this for nearly two decades now.

See the idea of moving all your work online just doesn’t really appeal to most people, especially the mainstream end-user. In fact it really didn’t appeal to me even only 2 years ago, however over that time I’ve found my self slowly making all my data accessible via the net, without even knowing that’s what I doing.

All my email is now accessible online, my bookmarks are on del.icio.us, my documents in Google Docs and Office Live, my photos on Flickr and online storage services (Live Mesh, SkyDrive), I use FeedDemon to read RSS feeds on my desktop which are synchronised with NewsGator Online, I have a dozen social media profiles and I spend more time in my browser then any other piece of software.

And that’s a pretty normal scenario too.

In fact the only thing that I haven’t moved online in some form has been my actual desktop itself, and that is now possible.

After having a really good look around and discovering as many online desktops as possible I gave each one a fairly good trial (except for a few which in my opinion weren’t really even worth that).

From this is came to several conclusions. Firstly, I found out that for all the cloud computing fuss at the moment Webtops themselves are not a particularly popular service. It’s a bit of a “I like the idea, but it just doesn’t work for me at the moment” situation, and not unjustifiably in most cases.

Secondly I discovered that many of these services are almost identical in what they offer, some a little prettier, some a little faster, but for the most part just the same tools and options in a different package.

And thirdly, a lot of online OS’s are still very young and using them exclusively would result in a dramatic drop in functionality and services. The issue seems to be that many are choosing develop their own products and services, rather then integrating with already much better services online such as Google Docs.

However I do think these services have a lot of potential, particularly a couple of them, and give it a few years might actually become more then just a curiosity. It certainly appeals more the Facebook ever becoming “the online OS”.

If you’re interested too in checking out some of these I’ve compiled a comprehensive list of Webtops in active development.

Here is a run-down of the best two, and descriptions of some other notables. If I missed any then just fire it off in the comments. Please note this list only includes free services.

Two Best Webtops

G.ho.st

G.ho.st has been getting a little bit of press lately, as much for who the company is rather as what they are actually doing. The team is made of Palestinians and Israelis working together online whilst divided by the wall between Gaza and Israel.

G.ho.st stands for Globally Hosted Operating SysTem and essentially emulates Windows on the web. It’s not the prettiest, fastest or most stable of the lot, but I feel it does have the most promise.

Why? Because G.ho.st wants to be to online users what Windows is to PCs, it wants developers to have freedom to create applications and freedom for users to use the online services they wish to. Included online services are Google Docs, Zoho, Flickr and Youtube. You can add more yourself

You will receive 5 gigabytes storage space, 3 gigabytes for email and an additional 1 gigabyte for every friend you get to sign up.

iCloud

iCloud is an equally impressive offering, and I can see it being close competitors with G.ho.st. It’s in a partially private beta, meaning that when you sign up for an account you’ll have to manually approved, but it doesn’t take long. I got mine within half an hour.

iCloud has a more unique UI and also runs a tad slower then G.ho.st. It comes with a lot of applications, a unique and useful one is Money Manager. It’s still quite unstable, but seeing as its in pre-alpha its to be expected.

I would suggest both or at least one of these two out if you would like try out an online desktop for the first time.

Other recommended Webtops

DesktopTwo
Comes in two flavours; ad supported and an upgrade version. The ads are displayed in the desktop faded out slightly, but they slig

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3 Responses to “Webtops - 20 online desktops to try”

Anton said on : June 11th, 2008 at 7:20 am

Note that G.ho.st is also opening up to the community and already open sourced its mobile client at: http://code.google.com/p/pixie-os/

DWiner said on : June 11th, 2008 at 7:52 am

Ghost is a good option. But I don’t see any reasonable use of such virtual desktops, other than simple fun.

kalivd said on : June 11th, 2008 at 8:47 am

I think there are various Online Operating systems today…. And the user has many other options, as i see that all the above listed “webtops” have almost same features repeated, There are several other Online Office Suites which is not included in the list i would like to do so Zoho, Thinkfree, eDeskOnline The last one that is eDeskOnline gives you the power of a Webtop also with additional features like eAccounting, ePortfolio tracking, eTaxation and many other applications….
eDeskOnline-Free Online Operating System