g.ho.st: a computer in a web page

[janusz]

From their 'what is it' page:

G.ho.st offers every person in the world a free Virtual Computer (VC). G.ho.st is simply pronounced "ghost", an acronym of Global hosted operating system . The G.ho.st Virtual Computer includes almost everything you would have in a physical computer - a desktop, file storage (like a disk drive) and applications (apps).

But unlike a physical computer, your Virtual Computer (VC) is "hosted" in a professional data center somewhere in the Internet "cloud" and is accessible as a web page in any browser. You can run the entire G.ho.st VC from any Internet browser without the need to install any software or "sync" files. Just enter your username and password, and continue using your VC from exactly the state you last left it in.

G.ho.st is revolutionizing personal computing by delivering to you a free Virtual Computer - personal computing in a web page, free of charge. For the first time in history, G.ho.st frees you from being tied to any one physical device - and frees you from the worries of installing software, backing up, and other administration.

I've signed up, and what they offer looks promising. The 'full" version (default) is however very heavy on resources: as far as I can tell, it's entirely written in Flash. There also is a 'lightweight' version, with severely restricted functionality and no graphics, but usable on almost any old hardware.

There is an interesting story about the background of the project on the "Economist" site.

Disclaimer: I have no association with either g.ho.st or the "Economist", save as a novice user of the former and a reader of the latter.

[sterdeus]

I signed up for this as well. It's usefully as a file storage and sharing files with other users, but other than that I'm not sure what I'd use it for. Maybe browsing a few websites that are blocked through my own connection. Maybe testing a new website through another browser.

[janusz]

File storage was my main reason for joining. Not necessarily file sharing, but having a place to put copies of a few files I might be working on while away from my PC and netbook. No, I don't travel everywhere with the latter , sometimes I use whatever machine is to hand, be it a friend of mine's or a public one.

I will one day try something which looks like a word processor of a sort.

As far as I can tell their browser is still in alpha.

[Boom]

Originally Posted by sterdeus

I signed up for this as well. It's usefully as a file storage and sharing files with other users, but other than that I'm not sure what I'd use it for. Maybe browsing a few websites that are blocked through my own connection. Maybe testing a new website through another browser.

It seems to use your own IP and browser to surf. Basically it looks like it's just a portal of webservices and their clients. I think you could archieve the same in iGoogle except for the filestorage and the storing of open pages,cookies,...