icloud beta launches, first ‘free online computer’

Xcerion has launched icloud, a virtual operating system, where users can access a desktop and applications through a web browser for free. The icloud service features a desktop user interface very similar to Vista and a suite of applications that allow you to create and share text, video and photo files online. Given the limitations of storage space on some netbooks this could be an ideal solution for some.

All in all, it offers 3GB of storage space and 30 free applications. I imagine Xcerion will look to charge for a more reasonable amount of storage space at some later point. The apps include a basic text editor and mail client along with some games. It’s well worth trying for yourself, if only to backup or share some files/photos. Signup is quite painless and it ran reasonably well on Internet Explorer and Firefox when I tried it earlier. It is quite lightweight and the performance isn’t too bad although I did notice that it took some time to switch between apps. This is only a beta launch so there is time for improvement.