Filed under: Features, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Productivity, Web services
Desktop on Demand: Nice, but worth the cost?
by Kristin Shoemaker Mar 13th 2008
Back in prehistory (or January, thereabouts) we talked a bit about webOSes, and the migration of Ewedrive to Desktop on Demand. This week we got a chance to play around with Desktop on Demand in more depth.Desktop on Demand (DOD) is a true networked OS. It's a Linux based system, with a clean, clear GNOME interface. There is online storage, and a good mix of open source apps. Our little issue about using a browser to access a webOS to surf the web in its browser has been addressed in an innovative way: launcher clients.
Yes, DOD offers clients to launch the service. Truthfully, we heard this and got a little annoyed. But trust us when we say that this is actually a freakin' huge advantage over the old time webOS set ups. The clients are available for Windows, OS X, and Linux. They are small, and can be installed on a flash drive. If you want to keep one on a hard drive on a given computer, it runs from the downloaded location. Very easy, very unoffensive -- very personal, and very secure.
When the desktop opens, it doesn't open in a browser. Maybe this shouldn't sit better with us, but for some strange reason, it just does. It feels much more natural. There is less clutter and we could forget that we were using a completely different operating system underneath it all.
The client software works beautifully in Windows. We couldn't get it to fly on our Zenwalk 5.0 Linux system, but fully acknowledge it may have been an issue on our part rather than the client. We were unable to check out the installer on a Mac.
It's a bit of a leap of faith (and even slightly counterintuitive), but when logging into Desktop on Demand the first time, don't fiddle with the pull down menu dealing with connection type (under "Session"). See how well your connection works, and if it isn't responsive as you'd like, then try messing with settings. The client doesn't really care about the method of connection physically. It's more to gauge speed.
The desktop is clean and easily understood, even if you've never used Linux. It allows for file sharing, internet utilities, text and image editing. It can be customized and personalized.
But yes, there's a price. Don't get us wrong, we don't mind paying for a service that does what we need. And if you are someone who uses multiple computers, frequently needs access to remote files, or needs to get around institutional filtering (for whatever reason), this could worth the money.
There is a 28-day free trial of the service available (minus a few apps and nice extras, like the ability to install plug-ins). The cheapest plan that most users would consider runs £5.99 per month (it features 25 gigs of storage and has all the apps and tweakability that would make it useful). There is a cheaper plan at £3.99, but without the inclusion of Open Office or the ability to add software or plug-ins, it would hardly seem worth it.
An ad-free, accessible from just about anywhere desktop is an exceedingly nice concept. Desktop on Demand's delivery of the service is great. It's fast, easy, and visually pretty pleasing. The pay by the month charge might not seem like much, but shelling out a few bucks every lunar cycle can not only add up, but be a real pain (did I pay the bill this month?)
Is it worth it? Hey, we can't make that decision for you, and we're pretty cheap anyway. It would be a little more tempting, though, if there were yearly or half-yearly plans offered at a discount.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Bill Minton said 5:33PM on 3-13-2008
I didn't see an option to play Unreal Tournament 3 or Crysis on there. Did I just miss those in the menus? ;)
I think it'll be awhile before a WebOS can compete fully with a locally installed OS, partially due to end-user connection speeds. Right now, I can take the pictures off of my 12MP digital camera in a minute or two. Something tells me my 3Mbit DSL connection can't upload those to the WebOS for tagging/editing/viewing in that same amount of time. It would of course be much worse for the multi-hundred meg .avi files of the kids.
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hazard said 9:35PM on 3-13-2008
I think the approach of LogMeIn is far better providing browser access to your [own] desktop. VNC is nice how it incorporates file transfer into the client .. that's only thing missing from the free version of LogMeIn that would make it killer..
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cysko said 12:05AM on 12-12-2008
im generally in a state of scared-dom after reading this.....
the implications....
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