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Workspot Offers Free Web-based Linux Accounts 83

Posted by timothy from the remote-control-penguins dept.
medicthree writes, "Workspot is offering free Linux accounts to anyone who wants one. These accounts are accessible through a normal Web browser, and let anyone install and run whatever (free) software they want to on the accounts. KDE is the window-manager (as I'm still on the waiting list I'm not sure if this can be changed). The system lets one keep up to two different desktops alive 'infinitely,' and they plan on charging later for additional features (more desktops, renting 'high-end' software to use on your account, more disk space, more CPU usage, etc.) One of [Workspot's] angles is that the system lets people 'try' Linux without installing anything on their actual computers. "
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Workspot Offers Free Web-based Linux Accounts More

Workspot Offers Free Web-based Linux Accounts

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  • What is so special about this? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    What is so new about using linux to do things remotely? You need to run X to use emacs? What is wrong with a plain old telnet connection?
    I've always used mindterm [mindbright.se]when i'm not at home and if I really need to I can login through sshvnc.
    This i'snt new or anything special.

    Psycot|X forgot his password

  • It uses a modified VNC Java client (Source available at www.workspot.org [workspot.org]) to connect up to your "desktop". It allows outbound SSH to other systems, but inbound doesn't appear to be allowed. I tried plain password authentication, but apparently my acutal linux password is different than my workspot.com password. I'll try uploading an authorized_keys for some RSA authentication later.

    I haven't really needed that because I'm more interested in being able to use this as access to my desktop from anybody's web browser. Anyway, the system works rather well for using VNC. It's not really sluggish at all and I have enjoyed using it.

    The actual hardware you connect up to appears to be some Pentium III boxes running at 450Mhz with 256 Megs of RAM with a 12gig /dev/hda. Home filesystems are remotely mounted.

    Now I just need to set one of these up to my own linux box at home and I'll be really set.

    I don't know what the backlog on accounts is currently at, but if anyone has questions, I'll be happy to test them out on the system.

  • I really wonder how slashdot picks submissions. I posted this well over a week ago, and now it shows up a week later accrediting someone else. Interesting. It amazing me why VA Linux would pay 1Billion for Slashdot (Yes, Slashdot, thats all the Andover.Net holds that is worth something. May Freshmeat.)
  • The windows port is pretty much like the linux version. I must admit I love that theres a windows verison because after spending so much time in gimp and then trying to go and use photoshop I have to readapt ause IM use to all my little tricks in the gimp so its nice to have a awsome cross platform program
  • I found MyWebOS [mywebos.com] through a really neat weblog called Web Apps [editthispage.com]. I thought it was a neat idea (except it's Win-only right now): accessing files over the net without dragging along a laptop. However, WebOS requires a (?) 10MB download (possibly more if you install other applets, I think). You'd have to have these applets installed on any "terminal" you used on the road, sort of shooting down the idea AFAIC.

    but this (workspot.com) requires no d/l (at least not yet), making it more useful [for me].

    and w/ more powerful apps included (not just a notebook or calendar or whatever), I could see getting some real work done (given bandwidth). I can't wait to investigate this a bit further ;)

  • Re:Umm (Score:1)

    by mlk ( 18543 )
    try working in an enveroment which _only_ uses Windows puters. Mlk
  • You could also have them try the [gimp.org]
    Windows port of GIMP. I've used it a bit, and while I can't compare it to the native Linux version of GIMP, I can say I like it much better than Photoshop.
  • Missed a platform that can run VNC client: PalmOS(!). Yes, you have to do a bit of scrolling on a 160x160 (I think it's 150x150 actual usuable area - rest is scrollbars etc) screen, but you can run the client on it (Don't know how long it would be before you give up on a B&W/16grey screen [unsure if color version out yet]).
  • have they been /.ed already?? Has anybody been able to create an account here?
  • I've tried the GIMP on the same machine that I use Photoshop, a Yosemite G3 PowerMac. The Gimp is very good, for a free application. But it's a loooong way to go before you can even approach the feature set of Photoshop. At Linuxworld NY, I ran into an old Amiga name now apparantly reincarnated into the Linux world... Photogenics [photogenics.co.uk] . If this, or ImageFX makes it's way into PPC Linux, they'd both fly onto my desktop in an instant. I'm not sure I'd give up Photoshop for even these two, but I'd rather have a couple of more tools than I need than one less.
  • href='http://url' is not legal HTML. Check the spec. Netscape and Exploder may interpret a lot of near-but-not-quite HTML, but that doesn't make such code correct.

  • Something really bizarre happened to your URL there. You did of course Preview and check it before posting ... ? :-)

    In any case, I know it's easy to install an ssh client in your Workspot workspace, because it's just like doing it on any other Unix. What I wanted to know is whether the machines come with the ssh server installed - which a user can't do for themselves at all.

  • I've been using Workspot for almost 3 months now, and its great.

    As a student in an NT school, i'll often set IE to full screen and code away on some perl scripts.

    The coolest thing about workspot is the fact that it offers the whole free storage thing too. Now some of you may think this is old news (X drive [xdrive.com], etc), but to all the geeks out there, you can access this storage space via a Palm VII app! Basically, Its a wireless storage space like that.

    And you also get free web hosting @ http://www.workspot.net/~username. With CGI! Mmmmm...

    O ya, and the KDE kiks ass too. But don't try to run it in Netscape/MacOS. *crash*.

    The only constraint has been bandwidth. The coolness loses its touch when the menu's are jerkin around on a 56k.

    All in all, a perfect OS gateway for those with network access to the internet.

    /nutt

  • Of course, if that's abused, I'm sure they'll turn off some of that



    They are already offering free accounts to anyone, so why bother about such abuse possibility. No sane person would ever use that kind of account for anything important. If those cgi-bins are run with user's own account it should not lead into root-compromise either.

  • . I mean, imagine if you could hop onto Windows 2000 from a web browser, and learn it

    Actually, it's possible (With Citrix MetaServer) Just very expensive to implement.

    -jerdenn

  • The other cool thing about this service: If you have a license or the software is free and does not require root, you can install it!

    I remember back in the day when there were a lot of free Linux systems around, and a lot of problems with people bringing over Eggdrop bots. I'm wondering if they'll address this issue. Because to be honest, I think they'll get a lot of people who will have no desire other than set up IRC bots.

    And on an even more important note. What's really stopping people from using this site as a launchpad for DoS attacks?

    Other then the few foreseeable problems with people abusing this company's generosity, I think this is a really cool project. I think for myself, it could be a great teaching tool. I mean, imagine if you could hop onto Windows 2000 from a web browser, and learn it. Would be a lot cheaper then attending a class.

  • This is such a good idea.
    Now when I'm staying round at a friend's place, I can still do all my coding etc. and keep uptodate on all my email, without needing to change any of his settings.
    Also means I can play Unreal Tournament and then not need to reboot.
  • From the KDE information menu:

    they've got a Genuine Intel PII 450MHz
    with approx. 500MB RAM? (or is that total virtual memory?)

    They're service was VERY slow. The demand for this kind of service must be pretty high then.


    Dilbert: I have become one with my computer. It is a feeling of ecstacy... the blend of logic and emotion. I have reached...
  • I've just made a lastfoot account under the username 'zing'. :) Good luck finding it, they are very heavily loaded.

    The mouse pointer was dragging by about 5 seconds!!

    Cool service thou... they default to KDE but you can do GNOME or AfterStep if that's your thing, I didn't bother.

    cool


    Dilbert: I have become one with my computer. It is a feeling of ecstacy... the blend of logic and emotion. I have reached...
  • A lot of them wouldn't want to have to access it through these bizarre VNC clients.

    ...and people who know what VNC actually is will welcome it. And yes, VNC can be SSH'd. It is GPL'd and has an excellent development team. Highly underrated. Everybody see http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/ and for an example of what you can do with it, see http://www.hubbe.net/~hubbe/x2vnc.html

  • lovely now I can really get up to some anonymous mischief. Sadly when you create files in your public_html dir you need to chmod 644 them to make them appear in your webspace.
    .oO0Oo.
  • firstly my celeron333 freeBSD server with 128Mb ram is at about 0.40% for my 800x600 vnc server.
    But it's memory footprint is about 4Mb.
    Is that a lot of resources?
    When I close my VNC connection cpu utilisation drops to 0% and my memory gets swapped out. (or it would do if I ever used 128Mb of ram for ANYTHING!).
    Saving state is great because you can start a compile, close it down and when you come back to it later it's like you never left. Helps when you're doing the usual 10000 things at once on 10 machines from one terminal.
    When you manage ten or so servers in NT, Win2k and a couple of Nix's remote access like this is great fun.
    VNC also has a clipboard feature so you can cut and paste between machines.
    With X you can choose the window manager globally for all your sessions.
    You also get to specify the screen size for each server so depending which machine I'm on I can get the correct size screen - (useful as I have a laptop with only 640x480 and scrolling becomes a pain).
    You can have it full screen or even choose a zoom level(as a fraction!)
    .oO0Oo.
  • Well I don't know. I've never needed to do it.
    .oO0Oo.

  • By default, SGML requires that all attribute values be delimited using either double quotation marks (ASCII decimal 34) or single quotation marks (ASCII decimal 39). Single quote marks can be included within the attribute value when the value is delimited by double quote marks, and vice versa. Authors may also use numeric character referencesto represent double quotes (") and single quotes ('). For double quotes authors can also use the character entity reference".

    In certain cases, authors may specify the value of an attribute without any quotation marks. The attribute value may only contain letters (a-z and A-Z), digits (0-9), hyphens (ASCII decimal 45), periods (ASCII decimal 46), underscores (ASCII decimal 95), and colons (ASCII decimal 58).

    see
    http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/intro/sgmltut.html#attr ibutes
    section - 3.2.2 Attributes
    .oO0Oo.
  • vnc [att.com]
    To change window managers just edit your
    ~/.vnc/xstartup file and change the window manager.
    I use iceWm on my FreeBSD box.

    .oO0Oo.
  • VNC Homepage [att.com]
    Slashdot turns href='http://url' into href="'http://url'" !!
    .oO0Oo.
  • VNC under SSH homepage [att.com]
    Slashdot code turns ' into "' in hrefs!
    .oO0Oo.
  • Where else does it say on this page what platforms VNC will run natively on!
    .oO0Oo.
  • While this is a good idea, it seems to me that VMWare is probably a better option for those wanting to "try out" Linux.

    I suspect the speed of this service will be much the same as MyWebOS. [mywebos.com] For those that have not used the service, it leaves much to be desired.

    With VMWare, Linux newbies don't have to repartition, etc, and ifthey get freaked out, they're just a Cntrl+Alt+Esc away from returning to Windows. This also makes it a lot easier to Linux Newbies to setup their Internet connections, as they can easily switch into windows and search through Linux.com or LinuxNewbie.org.

    This is definitely a nifty site though:)

    signature smigmature
  • But Photoshop is so much better than the original Gimp! The two are in *completely* seperate leagues!
    I have one thing to say to you: Anti-Aliasing.
    signature smigmature
  • Yeh I definately like the Photoshop idea, since Linux can be (and usually is) so damn graphical (esp with E, im sure so many talented Photoshoppers will be glad to try Gimp (look, it aint perfect that gimp .. you gotta admit) ..

    I'm sure they'd be so many more truely kickass themes if all the Photoshoppers themed for E !! :)

    Oh .. ahh .. forget playing games through this right ?

  • So they are basicly just running a display manager? Does this mean I can also just loggin using my xserver with xdmcp or do I need this vnc shit?

    And I would really like to see them offer twm instead of kde, I like it simple

    Grtz, Jeroen

  • I got that from their webpage, but are they going to provide other means of acces such as ssh or xdmcp?

    Grtz, Jeroen

  • And where are they getting their money from, if the major service is free? I didn't even see any adverts on the site. How are they going to stay around?

    They say they are going to rent applications to you, so you probably will get only the very basic for free... But still nice

    Grtz, Jeroen

  • Another happy Workspot customer here ^_^ (though I found it listed in Yahoo!, so erase that 'well kept secret' thing).

    My experience... let's just say that I uploaded one of my websites [workspot.net] with only two commands: unzip and chmod. The work that would have got me silly walking for half the morning done in 30 seconds. Gotta love it. The GIMP, the mahjonng solitaire and the CGI bin are my three other reasons to sign in.

    --Hikari
  • Actually, I signed up earlier today, and my account is activated right now.

    It is a bit slow, but what can one expect?

    Ryan Stultz

  • Interesting to note that they are allowing CGI and web sites for normal users (and correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there are any ads either). This could be a boon for people who aren't particularly interested in Linux but who do need CGI-enabled web space for whatever site they have. Of course, if that's abused, I'm sure they'll turn off some of that (or impose severe quotas) pretty quickly :)
  • Note: Due to high demand on our beta site, we are currently not performing registration immediately. Your request will be queued, and you will receive confirmation of account creation within one to two business days. We apologize for any inconvenience.

    Well now that it's been posted on Slashdot, we can probably expect that number to increase somewhat...

  • BTW, you can get a KDE/Gnome session from live.amirix.com [amirix.com] right away (depending on load!) without 2 day registration delays, etc. Registration is optional.

    The problem with free linux machines on the net (as has been pointed out) is to avoid having them used for DoS attacks, spam, etc.

    The LiVE (Linux Virtually Everwhere) approach is to use VMWARE to provide a sandbox to play in. Hopefully, this sandbox is secure & spam/DoS, etc, will not be a problem.

    We are looking for people to point out security problems with LiVE & the VMWare sandbox!

    Using VMWare for your sandbox has some problems, e.g., performance (not as bad as some people think), but also advantages. e.g., you can use VMWare on your local machine, get it set up to your liking, etc., then put it on the net via a single FTP for when you are on the road.

  • Sounds pretty cool to me, ive signed up but i havent recieved any mail about this, They said in a few days.... i dont know
  • Given that it is intended for people who aren't familiar with Linux or UNIX, and who presumably run Windows, XDMCP and ssh aren't particularly useful. If it was intended for seasoned Linux users, that'd be another story, of course..

    Or if they could get a (low-bandwidth) X server in a Java applet; though that'd be one big applet...
  • One word: Bandwidth.
  • First off, this service has been going for a while. I've had an account for 2 months or more. Second, I was happy to find they are running Debian. It's a potato-based system (glibc 2.1 and all) with a ton of packages (but not quite all) installed. Lastly, when you log into the machine itself, you will notice it's ip is in the 10.*.*.* range. I.E., they have some firewall trickery going on. What this means is there is no way to directly connect to the box other than the methods they provide. So don't expect to run a Quake server or a big Napster client off this site.
  • http://news .tucows.com/ext2/99/07/networking/072399-networkin g1pf.shtml [tucows.com] has an article about setting up something very similar with VNC and xdm. Very cool. Notice the comment at the bottom about anyone being able to take over a vnc session, anyone know if these servers do anything about that?
  • That has already totally turned me off. This website at best will prepare people for using linux in an environment that will have a systems administrator who will do all the difficult stuff[...]
    I know, I know, it's more fun when they let you load your own box. But in the Real World, they plump a box down on your desk, preloaded with all the stuff you Will Use, and bid you do your duty. Some folks let you download your favourite apps, some don't. My last job was pretty cavalier about it ("wow! you get all that off the net for free? Where do we get more?"); my current job would probably have a kitten if they knew I had Emacs loaded native to my PC (despite the fact that Perl is sine qua non for this environment)....

    But really. How many folks actually install their own operating system, except for maybe BSD and Be? Most folks (WinDoze, Mac, and anything bigger) get their 'puters preinstalled, and an increasing number of Linuxites show up at an install party and get the gurus to set it up for them...

    You and I and anyone reading this works in a rarified atmosphere of ubergeeks, where recompiling the kernel is a daily occurrence. We're way beyond Six Sigma here...

    Welcome to the Real World, where Everyone Else just turns on their computer and expects it to Just Work.

    --
    warpeightbot, GaTech ICS '90 gus Baird (RIP)
    Linux: The Choice of a GNU Generation


  • See,

    http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/~minenko/PalmVNC/

  • Delayed (Score:2)

    by ajs ( 35943 )
    Due to high volume (wonder why) they're taking 2 days or so to set up accounts....
  • This thing could be quite benificial for the Linux movement. Now I could just give "regular" people a URL to go try Linux, instead of having to install it on their system first. And then if they like that browser experiance, then maybe they can install it on their own computer. Pretty damn cool if you ask me.
  • Oh .. ahh .. forget playing games through this right ?
    I don't know, I intend to try rezrov and some z-machine games. Since they've got 0% graphics (well, the older ones), they will hopefully work. (Though I've had no success with using rezrov over telnet, I'm still hopeful.)

    Oh, and I'm also going to try Nethack.

    I just hope they activate my account soon...

  • I know plenty of people who'd love to have a free Unix account like this. A lot of them wouldn't want to have to access it through these bizarre VNC clients. The web site seemed curiously silent on this, but I'd like to know if they support ssh logins. If they don't, there's something seriously missing.

    I wonder what their load is like? (And whether it'll increase after being slashdotted...) Last time I heard of a free-Unix-account setup, it was ludicrously overloaded. If it's not worth logging in because you won't be able to do anything once you get there, why bother?

    And where are they getting their money from, if the major service is free? I didn't even see any adverts on the site. How are they going to stay around?

  • After received the "delayed account creation" message, I decided to check out the FAQ [workspot.com]and find out what they used to run their service. It was pretty high level but they had a link to their "technical FAQ" [workspot.com] so I was hopeful.

    Uh. Pretty lame. No technical detail. Deep questions like "What does Bill Gates think of this?". I want to try the service but sheesh.

    r/

    Dave

  • I have no reason to doubt the honest and serious motives of the crew over at Workspot, inc.
    However, whenever I see some 'desktop over the web' or 'backup over the web' or 'write-your-bestseller-over-the-web' ad, my hairs stand straight up. When I hear that an ISP had to disclose his user DB to *** because of transmission of copyrighted material or that some would-be McCarthy in Elbonia (sorry, Dilbert) demands access to user's home directories, I definitely have mixed feelings about storing anything vaguely personal on some server somewhere in the Wild West Web.
    Call me paranoid if you like (yes I do ssl transactions), but who guarantees you that you won't get sued over some 'foo.doc' where you wrote that B.C. or J.K. or R.M. or L.T. or C.T. was an idiot/nerd/redneck/sex maniac/DUIer... (properties and characters do not necessarily match here, and surely not in the featured sequence)
  • Actually VNC probably wouldn't work very well for this sort of application, unless I understand it wrong (disclaimer: I've only used it for a week). VNC transmits state. Thus it really only handles one instance of X. I believe that for every graphical login you would have to have a copy of the XServer running... Very resource intensive!!!

    You might be able to kludge something together, most of the parts are certainely there. But VNC is designed more for network control of a centralized server than allowing generic graphical X logins.

    Also VNC *can* be very resource heavy on the server system, even w/o the overhead of one instance of X to login...which is killer if you are serving *lots*. Using a Java XServer has the advantage that it adds no more overhead than is minimally necessary (I mean, you have to run multiple instances of your WM/Desktop and Apps, but other than that).

    -nullity-

    I am nothing.
  • If it's vnc [att.com] based then that's cool.
    Clients available for all sorts of platforms :
    Linux 2.x for x86
    Solaris 2.5 (SPARC)
    Windows 9x/2000/NT (Intel Win32)
    Macintosh
    - 68K processor
    - PPC processor
    DEC Alpha OSF1 3.2
    Windows CE 2.x
    - SH3 processor
    - MIPS processor

    An of course a Java app in a browser window

    I use it on my network at home and also have vnc servers running on my FreeBSD server at work so I can work from home or wherever I am!
    Using VNC means that Workspot don't have to care about Video drivers or anything which makes it much easier for them.

    .oO0Oo.
  • The problem with free linux machines on the net (as has been pointed out) is to avoid having them used for DoS attacks, spam, etc.

    How are these any different from something like shellyeah.org or VERY low cost shell's that you can afford potentially a high number of and obtain a lot of bandwidth for relatively little cash.

  • Isn't this kindof like what Sun is trying to do, basically have a thin client access a desktop and apps via a browser to their application server? &nbsp I recall them wanting folks to run something like StarOffice 5.x over the net &nbsp -- &nbsp all for a fee...

  • Re:VNC is cool...but *not* for this app (Score:3)

    by stripes ( 3681 ) on Monday March 20, 2000 @05:06AM (#1191351) Homepage Journal
    Thus it really only handles one instance of X. I believe that for every graphical login you would have to have a copy of the XServer running... Very resource intensive!!!

    Um, and the problem would be?

    I havn't got a whole lot of Linux experiance, but I assume that just like any other modern Unix-like system it can swap out unused processes, so when you are not using your graphical enviroment the data area for that X server (Xvnc) will be paged out to disk, and the text (code) area will be shared by all the other running copies.

    More over, if they want you to be able to have graphical desktops that save state, how else would it be done? ICCCM and XSM (or whatever the session managment was named after ICCCM's session managment was declared a failure) has been around for years and still doesn't work for everything (or really much of anything!). It has to be somewhere. If it can't be on the client, it has to be on the server.

    You might be able to kludge something together, most of the parts are certainely there. But VNC is designed more for network control of a centralized server than allowing generic graphical X logins.

    From VNC's web pages [att.com] they say it was orignally designed for a ATM baised lightweight "Network Computer". In other words allowing X (windows/mac) graphical logins.

    Also VNC *can* be very resource heavy on the server system, even w/o the overhead of one instance of X to login...which is killer if you are serving *lots*. Using a Java XServer has the advantage that it adds no more overhead than is minimally necessary (I mean, you have to run multiple instances of your WM/Desktop and Apps, but other than that).

    The Java XServer is fairly "resource easy" on the central server. But it doesn't let you save state from session to session. It also deals with lack o' bandwidth in a very diffrent way from VNC. For example a Xserver without enough bandwidth scrolling a single xterm will scroll it slowly, and become unresponsave to the user. VNC will appear to skip chunks of the text (like seeing still-frames of a movie), but will remain fairly responsave to the mouse and keybord.

    I run VNC (over SSH) on my home machine, and access it from work, from my windows box (it has the monitor, for my wife's convenence), from other places. It's pretty nice. I keep three sessions running (three Xvnc's).

    If my only concern was resource use I would probbably put an X server on my other machines at home (well, not the palm pilot), and do it that way. But the "never ending X session" is an extreamly handy feature. I gladly pay the small price VNC forces from me. It ain't a bad choice here either.

  • If the demand is high for this service (I'll bet it will be!), how will they keep up? Will they:

    a) Just let it bog down until the lag balances with the demand?

    b) Limit user accounts to an amount the allocated resources can support?

    c) Just keep adding new machines, indefinitely?

  • One Question... (Score:3)

    by Carnage4Life ( 106069 ) on Monday March 20, 2000 @05:08AM (#1191353) Homepage Journal
    How is this preparing anyone for installing linux at their home or office?

    From the FAQ:
    Q: Can I install my own software?
    A: Sure, if it is free software or if you have a licence for it and it doesn't require root privileges to install.

    That has already totally turned me off. This website at best will prepare people for using linux in an environment that will have a systems administrator who will do all the difficult stuff, like setup PPPoE (so that one's DSL connection can be accessed) without any support from your ISP. The only people I can see being attracted to this site are Windows users who are about to be forced to use Linux as a desktop environment and need to quickly familiarize themselves with the linux desktop environment.

  • Setup your own! (Score:3)

    by nullity ( 115966 ) on Monday March 20, 2000 @04:08AM (#1191354) Homepage
    Those intrepid enough / with spare cycles to throw away may consider setting like this up themselves. It is almost garunteed that workspot will try to stay behind the development curve. While this is good...because it makes for a consistent environment with little change...it doesn't demo Linux's "flashier" side very well. Not to flame, but KDE doesn't make a stunning impression. Yes, its useful, but it isn't very grabbing.
    &nbsp
    In any case you can easily setup your own similar installation. I've been setting one up for our LUG. It'll give us an URL to refer people to when they want to know what Linux "looks like". I'm using the WiredX java applet, a fine piece of software (it even performs well!!!). You can download it from http://www.wiredx.net [wiredx.net].
    &nbsp
    If nothing else, it demonstrates the flexibility of X right off the bat :) I have gotten so used to it that I was surprised to find a friend shocked when I showed him that I could do this! One easily forgets why one uses *nix, hehe.

    -nullity-

    I am nothing.

  • vnc (Score:3)

    by absurd ( 146685 ) on Monday March 20, 2000 @03:22AM (#1191355)
    here is an url for that mystic vnc
    (I am sure someone is wondering, since I was :)

    http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/

  • Also try lastfoot.com (Score:4)

    by ChrisGoodwin ( 24375 ) on Monday March 20, 2000 @04:10AM (#1191356) Journal
    http://www.lastfoot.com [lastfoot.com] has the same service, and they are accepting accounts right now.

    They use a vnc based solution.
    --

  • Re:I like this idea (Score:4)

    by cpsoft ( 161120 ) on Monday March 20, 2000 @04:11AM (#1191357) Homepage
    You can also get a virtual linux session over the web from
    live.amirix.com [amirix.com]
    This uses VMWare, to give you a virtual box, which has some advantages (and disadvantages).

  • Using the Service (Score:5)

    by gadwale ( 46632 ) on Monday March 20, 2000 @04:16AM (#1191358) Homepage
    I am so glad I got that account last week! With the slashdot crowd heading there the two business day rule may change!

    Here are my experiences to date:

    To those that expect to install something on their computers: There is nothing to install, they use the java version of vnc and the desktop is presented in your browser. In reality, the entire desktop is like a remote screenshot and looks EXACTLY like a debian KDE typical desktop. They let you customize it but I haven't got that far yet! If not for anything else, use this for shock value on a doze machine and have a debian desktop inside an IE window!

    They are true to their word on the two business day waiting period.

    Since th VNC client is GPLed, you can actually download their changes from workspot.org [workspot.org]; this is my next weekend project...

    I don't know how this works through firewalls, but if it does, geeks in doze offices all over the world have just been liberated!

    The site is neat but has very very little tech info. There is a faq which adds little value and repeated searches on Google don't lead to any other pages about this service, so it looks like a well kept secret... till now!

    On a side note, there was a previous article [slashdot.org]here about wireless ebay on a palm VII using debian and workspot. I never really understood that one and since I haven't figured out how to list archived article comments by score all I can tell is that the trolls haven't changed much! I think it talks about workspot using debian to provide wireless access to ebay on palm vII!!!

    The other cool thing about this service: If you have a license or the software is free and does not require root, you can install it! Can't wait to get the emacs JDE [sunsite.auc.dk]from installed and running so that I can use this site for (*new buzzword alert*) 'remote coding'.

    If this site is really for linux newbies to try it out, more info 'bout how to get started would definetely help...currently the site only lets you escape the hassle of installing linux ( not that much of a hassle anyway ) but does not serve as an intro to linux.

    Whats with the bannerless CGI enabled apparently limitless web space (faq says don't use _too_ much diskspace, open to interpretation...)? These people seem to have all the goodies on one site.

    I tried to ftp out of the box to move my website in but sadly nothing happened! I realized how helpless I was without having the box at my feet: there was none of that reassuring hum from the drive as you clicked on something and waited. How about a flashing [processing command sire]...? Now that would have geek value!

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