G.ho.st
Encyclopedia
G.ho.st was the trading name of Ghost Inc. and the service name and URL of the company's hosted computer operating system or WebOS
service. Its name is an acronym of Global Hosted Operating SysTem. The old URL G.ho.st is a domain hack
using the São Tomé and Príncipe .st country extension and more recently Ghost has moved to http://Ghost.cc. As of April 2010 Ghost has closed its service due to competition and lack of funding.
, a working environment that mimics the classic desktop provided by personal computer operating systems. As an internet-based service, users are able to create, save and return to a working environment from different physical computers and mobile phone
s. G.ho.st calls itself a virtual computer. In July 2009 the software entered beta stage development, and as of now it remains in this stage. The beta launch near Jerusalem was attended by Quartet Representative and former UK prime minister Tony Blair
. The Company's primary investor is Benchmark Capital
.
Such services are not considered operating systems in the traditional sense although they are sometimes referred to as Web Operating Systems. Whilst they can include a GUI
(e.g. a desktop), a (virtual) file system, application management and security, they do not contain a kernel to interface with physical hardware. Therefore, to use the service an operating system is required, supporting at least a web browser
from which the service can be run.
The G.ho.st Virtual Computer is hosted on Amazon Web Services
and can be seen as utilizing cloud computing
on the backend and delivering a consumer version of cloud computing. According to the G.ho.st website, it is planned to additionally offer a commercial, fully featured and scalable private cloud file system (Ghost Cloud File System, CFS) that is designed to run within the customer's own Amazon web services account. The business model will be based on surcharges to Ghost which will be collected by Amazon.
The company has received growing press coverage, relating both to the technology and because Israelis and Palestinians work as partners to build the company's products.
It is considered to be the only joint Palestinian and Israeli technology startup company
and the first company to offer employee stock options in the Palestinian Territories
.
Web operating system
In metacomputing, WebOS and Web operating system are terms that describe network services for Internet scale distributed computing, as in the WebOS Project at UC Berkeley, and the WOS Project...
service. Its name is an acronym of Global Hosted Operating SysTem. The old URL G.ho.st is a domain hack
Domain hack
A domain hack is an unconventional domain name that combines domain levels, especially the top-level domain , to spell out the full "name" or title of the domain. Examples include del.icio.us , goo.gl and fold.it...
using the São Tomé and Príncipe .st country extension and more recently Ghost has moved to http://Ghost.cc. As of April 2010 Ghost has closed its service due to competition and lack of funding.
Overview
The G.ho.st service provides, over the InternetInternet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, a working environment that mimics the classic desktop provided by personal computer operating systems. As an internet-based service, users are able to create, save and return to a working environment from different physical computers and mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s. G.ho.st calls itself a virtual computer. In July 2009 the software entered beta stage development, and as of now it remains in this stage. The beta launch near Jerusalem was attended by Quartet Representative and former UK prime minister Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
. The Company's primary investor is Benchmark Capital
Benchmark Capital
Benchmark Capital is a venture capital firm responsible for the early stage funding of some very successful startups. In 1997, the firm invested $6.7 million in eBay, which became worth more than $5 billion by the spring of 1999. Other high-profile investments include Ariba, Juniper Networks, Red...
.
Such services are not considered operating systems in the traditional sense although they are sometimes referred to as Web Operating Systems. Whilst they can include a GUI
Gui
Gui or guee is a generic term to refer to grilled dishes in Korean cuisine. These most commonly have meat or fish as their primary ingredient, but may in some cases also comprise grilled vegetables or other vegetarian ingredients. The term derives from the verb, "gupda" in Korean, which literally...
(e.g. a desktop), a (virtual) file system, application management and security, they do not contain a kernel to interface with physical hardware. Therefore, to use the service an operating system is required, supporting at least a web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
from which the service can be run.
The G.ho.st Virtual Computer is hosted on Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services is a collection of remote computing services that together make up a cloud computing platform, offered over the Internet by Amazon.com...
and can be seen as utilizing cloud computing
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
on the backend and delivering a consumer version of cloud computing. According to the G.ho.st website, it is planned to additionally offer a commercial, fully featured and scalable private cloud file system (Ghost Cloud File System, CFS) that is designed to run within the customer's own Amazon web services account. The business model will be based on surcharges to Ghost which will be collected by Amazon.
The company has received growing press coverage, relating both to the technology and because Israelis and Palestinians work as partners to build the company's products.
It is considered to be the only joint Palestinian and Israeli technology startup company
Startup company
A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...
and the first company to offer employee stock options in the Palestinian Territories
Palestinian territories
The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...
.
Closure
On March 3, 2010, Ghost.cc (formed G.ho.st) sent the users the following e-mail:
Dear Ghost User, We hope you have been enjoying our free Ghost service. Regrettably changes in the marketplace mean that it is no longer economical for us to host the Ghost service and we will be closing down the service on or around March 15. We will instead be focusing on licensing or selling our technology to larger companies. We advise you to migrate ALL important folders, files and emails to another secure place before March 15. You might like to consider Google Docs or Microsoft SkyDrive for files and services such as Gmail or Yahoo! Mail for email. Some instructions for migrating data are included below.
We are really sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you and are very grateful for the fantastic support we had from our community.
Features
- Integration with third-party web applications (Google Docs, ThinkFree, MeeboMeeboMeebo is a social platform connecting users with their friends across the web. It began in 2005 as a browser based instant messaging program which supported multiple IM services, including Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, AIM, ICQ, MySpaceIM, Facebook Chat, Google Talk, CafeMom and...
, Zoho) - Mail/calendar/contacts program (with 10GBGigabyteThe gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...
free powered by ZimbraZimbraZimbra Collaboration Suite is a groupware product created by Zimbra, Inc., located in Palo Alto, California, USA. The company was purchased by Yahoo! in September 2007, and subsequently purchased by VMware on Tuesday, January 12, 2010. The software consists of both client and server components...
) - Storage called My G.ho.st Drive (15GBGigabyteThe gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...
free, FTP access) - Smart icons and tags for external internet resources such as files, products and people (Tagging Things)
- Desktop widgetsWidget engineIn computer software, a widget engine is a software service available to users for running and displaying applets on a graphical user interface, such as that of the desktop.The widget model in widget engines is attractive because of ease of development...
(RSS Reader, Calculator, clock, Yahoo Weather, Stickies, Google Search) - Multiple language support
- Virtual File System shows files stored by G.ho.st Drive, Google Docs and others with a consistent explorer
- G.ho.st Sync - an installed application which synchronizes files between the local computer and G.ho.st Drive
- File sharingFile sharingFile sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...