Get your own Virtual Desktop on the Web
Virtual Desktops are the latest cool thing to hit the Web. By having an online desktop, you can always have access to all your contacts, documents, music, videos, photos, etc. on any computer. And since all of your data is stored centrally, it’s also generally easier to share and collaborate with others.
It’s also a useful and secure way to backup your important files, and have access to them wherever you go, rather than take them physically. Great if you are someone who uses an Internet cafe, for example.
Jooce is my favourite Virtual Desktop, and provides a Web-based desktop to manage your IM, email, storage, media and widgets in a secure and protected way. They also provide an online desktop that they can share with friends to swap files like pictures, documents, audio and video.
Jooce is nice-looking and very easy to use. It’s also got a clever sharing feature: Each user gets two workspaces by default: private and shared. You can easily move files between them to make them available to others, and a quick mouse-click rotates your workspace between the two spaces.
You can see a video demo of Jooce Here
ajaxWindows is a mash-up of Javascript, XML and AJAX. You can register and sign into it in less than a minute and the desktop looks exactly like a Windows desktop.
ajaxWindows looks and feels just like your own desktop or mobile PC. It has a start button, a task bar, a desktop, icons, programs, widgets, a control panel and a file browser. It’s all just like you’re already used to using on your regular PC, with one BIG difference - it’s all on the web!
Here’s a video demo of ajaxWindows:
EyeOS is an interesting open source web-based operating system, and it won a Web Technology Revelation award from Yahoo last year. It has a nice calendar application, and you can create documents compatible with Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.
You normally get around 1GB of free storage with all of these Virtual Desktops, but you can easily sign up for more than one service if you need the extra space.
If you are just interested in online storage, then check out XDrive (5GB of free storage), or Gspace (Uses Gmail accounts to create unlimited amounts of storage).
