Information World Review (IWR) Blog Information World Review (IWR) Blog A blog from www.iwr.co.uk

« Search me... | Main | Conservative bill to restrict FoI linked to government »

A G.ho.st in your machine?

How do you fancy logging into any computer and finding all your web applications and files there waiting for you? A bit like the office network really, except we're talking here about macs, pcs and linux machines anywhere in the world.

Well, if Dr. Zvi Schreiber has his way, it's going to happen. Right now his  Global hosted operating system (G.ho.st) can deliver the goods. It's early days, the program (shown at Innovate!Europe) is still what you'd call alpha. The first public beta is expected in July.

But G.ho.st works, especially if you use a reasonably snappy computer and have, it almost goes without saying, a broadband connection. It does need to do a lot of rendering work using Flash to simulate the desktop.

Whether you'd agree that G.ho.st is "the world's only true web OS" is open to question. It might be the world's first web-based virtual computer. But whether you'd consider it an operating system is another matter. It probably depends how techie you are. You access G.ho.st from your browser and it hosts multiple web services and applications for you.

You can even upload files from your computer to a free 3GB of storage which you can organise into the usual folder structure. It's a great place to store those last minute items that you might just need when travelling.

G.ho.st feels fairly 'normal' in use. You can play around with colours and fonts and generally tweak the desktop to your liking.

If you want to play, visit http://G.ho.st but be prepared for the odd freeze or crash. It goes with the territory. By July, it should be more solid.

Comments

G.ho.st is surely a great concept. I don't know much about the technical aspect of G.ho.st but its functionality excites me.. I saw an interview of its creator, Zvi Schreiber. You can read about the man himself and his aims to ultimately move the whole computer onto the web at Los Creador - http://www.loscreador.com/2007/05/29/interview-with-the-ghost-zvi-schreiber

Post a comment

Bloggers-in-chief

Daniel Griffin, IWR Deputy Editor Daniel Griffin, IWR Deputy Editor
Daniel joined IWR in 2006 after a career as a publisher of guides, supplements and websites for magazine and event companies. His special interest is the evolving publishing and information industry online.

Peter Williams, IWR Editor Peter Williams, IWR Editor
Peter is in his second spell on IWR. Over the last few years he has developed interest in the fields of knowledge management and e-learning, writing and editing extensively on both topics.

Friends of IWR

LI Isues
James Mullan

Lorcan Dempsey’s weblog
Lorcan Dempsey

SocialTech
Josie Fraser

Jennie Law’s blog
Jennie Law

UK Web Focus
Brian Kelly

tfpl blog
James Lappin

e4innovation
Grainne Conole


Powered by Movable Type
Useful links: About | Privacy policy | Terms & conditions | Top of the page
© Incisive Media Ltd. 2008
Incisive Media Limited, Haymarket House, 28-29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4RX, is a company registered in the United Kingdom with company registration number 04038503