ghost

By Evan Ackerman

Back in March, we wrote about a service called OnLive, which outsources gaming hardware to “the cloud,” i.e. makes it someone else’s problem. G.ho.st (which I will herein refer to as Ghost) does sort of the same thing, except with an entire operating system.

‘Ghost’ is an acronym for Global Hosted Operating SysTem, and it’s a sort of virtual computer that lives somewhere out there in the intertubercloud. You access it, in its entirety, via nothing more than a web browser. When you do, Ghost gives you a virtual desktop, complete with programs, file storage, and yes, even the internet (inside the internet). The programs available on Ghost are all open source, but you should be able to mess around with most types of files, including MS Office files. You get 5 gigs of file storage on your virtual computer, along with an email address and the capability to aggregate your other email accounts via POP3. You can keep the rest of your files synced between Ghost and other computers with a small desktop application.

Ghost is a completely free service, and they aim to stay that way. They make their money through affiliate advertising; when you click (say) a Google ad link while using the Ghost browser, Ghost gets paid. The upsides to a cloud desktop like this are many, the chief one being that you can have “your” computer available anywhere with little more than a web browser. Files, email, bookmarks, even cookies… Ghost keeps it all in one place for you. All you need is internet and you’re good to go.

[ g.ho.st ]

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9 COMMENTS

  1. Sounds like they are channeling AOL from 1994. It's somewhat like an intranet without the intranet.

    I may try it but I wonder how secure it is?

  2. its nothing but a huge flash-base glitter-girl-designed thing.
    its neither “fast” – fullscreen flash with mass of aa isnt working well on my Athlon2400+ – isnt “rocketmashine” – but damn, its browser-based thing?

    i gona test what happens if i open ghost inside ghost – as it has an inside browser too.
    btw – cant login atm^^

  3. I have a friend that can only get to a handful of sites from work. I tried it out to see if I could use their web browser like a proxy. I wasn't able to get a single page to load though. Everything else seemed responsive, and it seemed decent enough.

    @bleicher: the window scales down nicely. It opened fullscreen, but I just moved it to a new tab inside Chrome. That made it run a lot smoother for me.

  4. i cant even register. i keep getting an “unknown errors in registration process” message using various user name and password combos. Is it even worth the time?

  5. WOW, these guys are really making a great job. Really amazing… Having 5GB of file storage in the world and 3GB of emails and Web apps accessible from any browser (http://g.ho.st)and all for FREE!!!!

    I can upload and download my files (Documents, Pictures, Movies, Music,…) to my G.ho.st Virtual Computer drive. I can also edit my pictures and document and listen to my music within one web based page. I don’t have to think about backups and installation any more.

    Even I can access my virtual computer from any mobile browser (http://g.ho.st/m).

  7. WOW, these guys are really making a great job. Really amazing… Having 5GB of file storage in the world and 3GB of emails and Web apps accessible from any browser (http://g.ho.st)and all for FREE!!!!

    I can upload and download my files (Documents, Pictures, Movies, Music,…) to my G.ho.st Virtual Computer drive. I can also edit my pictures and document and listen to my music within one web based page. I don’t have to think about backups and installation any more.

    Even I can access my virtual computer from any mobile browser (http://g.ho.st/m).

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