Gservo
31st January 2003, 04:27 AM
Available now in a browser near you
Want to have a look at Linux but don't want to bother installing it? Or maybe you want to give it a test run?
Sometime back the first option was possible with a live CD which came with various distributions. More recently, Knoppix has arrived - the Linux distribution which you can use without installing. Both need a computer which support booting from the CD.
Now there's a much easier option. There's Linux on the web - and it can be accessed as easily as one accesses web mail.
Workspot (http://www.workspot.com/) provides a Linux acount on the servers of the company which goes by the same name. You use the desktop through a browser and access it from anywhere in the world.
A monthly fee of $US9.95 is charged and for that one gets 100 MB of storage space. A full Red Hat 8.0 desktop is available with all the attendant software. There's no minimum subscription - you can take it month by month.
You need a Java-enabled browser and broadband connection to use it. I tried with a 56K dial-up and it was slow. And you need an outgoing TCP connection on ports 50100 through 51800 for the moment - the development team is working on eliminating the need for this.
It's useful as a learning tool, a teaching tool, and for the mobile user. Techies will find it extremely useful for testing - there's no need to buy or install anything.
There's software aplenty - OpenOffice.org (spreadsheet, word processor, project management, diagram editor) and Ximian Evolution (e-mail, calendar, contact manager, groupware) are just two of the better known ones. Screenshots can be seen at
this page (http://www.theage.com.au/technology/gallery/gallery1/2003/01/30/) (the shots range from 53K to 70K).
One desktop can be made available to multiple users simultaneously, for collaboration over the web. The user who creates a desktop session can decide who has access to it, using a function called "Share the Desktop".
And one great bonus - the documentation available at the site is very easy to follow.
Want to have a look at Linux but don't want to bother installing it? Or maybe you want to give it a test run?
Sometime back the first option was possible with a live CD which came with various distributions. More recently, Knoppix has arrived - the Linux distribution which you can use without installing. Both need a computer which support booting from the CD.
Now there's a much easier option. There's Linux on the web - and it can be accessed as easily as one accesses web mail.
Workspot (http://www.workspot.com/) provides a Linux acount on the servers of the company which goes by the same name. You use the desktop through a browser and access it from anywhere in the world.
A monthly fee of $US9.95 is charged and for that one gets 100 MB of storage space. A full Red Hat 8.0 desktop is available with all the attendant software. There's no minimum subscription - you can take it month by month.
You need a Java-enabled browser and broadband connection to use it. I tried with a 56K dial-up and it was slow. And you need an outgoing TCP connection on ports 50100 through 51800 for the moment - the development team is working on eliminating the need for this.
It's useful as a learning tool, a teaching tool, and for the mobile user. Techies will find it extremely useful for testing - there's no need to buy or install anything.
There's software aplenty - OpenOffice.org (spreadsheet, word processor, project management, diagram editor) and Ximian Evolution (e-mail, calendar, contact manager, groupware) are just two of the better known ones. Screenshots can be seen at
this page (http://www.theage.com.au/technology/gallery/gallery1/2003/01/30/) (the shots range from 53K to 70K).
One desktop can be made available to multiple users simultaneously, for collaboration over the web. The user who creates a desktop session can decide who has access to it, using a function called "Share the Desktop".
And one great bonus - the documentation available at the site is very easy to follow.